By Ryan Tarletsky, freshman

The Falcon track team is coming together at the right time. With seven more runners qualifying for nationals, the Falcons are on fire as they head toward a possible KCAC championship.

“We really are peaking at the right time,” said Coach Brad Peterson. “We had three runners awarded with KCAC Athlete of the Week, and they only award four people per week.”

Senior Sarah Wiebe and sophomores Jordan Arnold and Matt Ditzler all won KCAC Athletes of the Week. Wiebe qualified for nationals in the 400 meter hurdles, Arnold in the 5,000 meters and Ditzler in the 10,000 meters. Ditzler crushed the school record by more than four minutes and is third in the nation in this event.

Other runners who have recently qualified for nationals include junior Taylor Doll and sophomores Karissa Cominator and Dan Niedlinger, all in the 10,000, freshman Lanae Kidd in the 800 meters, and senior Ta’Vionna Polley-Davis in the 400 meters.

“Both the Tabor Invitational and the Mount Sac Relays were exciting to watch,” said Peterson. “Everyone’s hard work is paying off. We are improving all around really, including throwing, our middle distance and our hurdles.”

With just one more invitational before the conference championship, the Falcons plan on resting up at the Southwestern Invitational.

“We have a couple of runners who have injuries and others who are really sore,” said freshman Steve Bush. “I think we will probably just rest up and take it easy until conference. That way we can give it all we got to win a conference title.”

Peterson said a few freak injuries are the reason for this approach, and because of the lack of depth, they do not want to hurt a few key runners.

“Our strength is not in numbers, but the people we have are some of the best in this conference,” said Peterson. “ Every team has their own adversity to overcome; this is ours.”

Heading into conference, both the Friends men and women are expected to compete for first place. The Southwestern men have won 16 meets in a row and are known to throw in surprises at the conference championship. For the women, it is a toss up between Friends and Bethany.

“We know it won’t be easy, but we know we can do it,” said Peterson. “Besides, we will have a few surprises of our own.”