The track and field team competed at Hamline University's Meet of the Unsaintly on Wednesday afternoon in St. Paul. The meet provided area athletes a final window to hit qualification standards for their respective conference championships that will start next week. Bethel, Concordia - St. Paul, Hamline, Macalester, Minnesota, Minnesota - Duluth, North Central, St. Cloud State, St. John's, St. Olaf, St. Thomas were all in attendance for the high-level competition.

With a big stage set for the top heat of the 1500m, Calvin Boone (St. Paul, Minn./St. Paul Highland Park HS) had the opportunity he had been waiting for all year. With a string of Division I talent attacking career-best times, Boone stayed on the tail end of a blistering start. Staying patient through the first 800, Boone kept focus on moving up and putting himself in striking position for a national qualifying mark. Around the final turn, Boone boomed down the homestretch and unlocked the gear he needed to surge to the finish line under 3:50. Finishing in seventh place overall, Boone's finishing time of 3:49.84 places him 12th nationally. 

With the sun down, and the lights on, the scene was pristine for the 4x400m relay team to set the tone for the rest of the season. Running lead off for the Saints, a position he's grown comfortable in over the years, was Sean Alfaro Diedrich (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS), who scorched the track with the fastest 400m split of his life. Diedrich handed it off to Derek Douglas (Escanaba, Mich./Escanaba HS), who scampered past a challenger on the first turn and continued to move the Saints towards the leaders. In third position, newcomer Zach Bartsch took off bravely to keep the team in contention. On the anchor leg, Noah Kubicek (Owatona, Minn./Owatonna HS) got caught in traffic early, but opened up on the backstretch and moved the team safely into third position. Kubicek ran out of real estate and that's where the team would finish, behind conference rivals Bethel and St. Olaf. The team finished in a time of 3:20.52. Miraculously, this time matched the current St. Scholastica school record; a team that finished third place at the 2023 MIAC Championships. Kubicek and Douglas are members of both record setting relay teams. 

The throwers will head down to compete at MSU-Mankato on Friday. After that, it is all eyes on the MIAC Championships on May 9th and 10th at Macalester College. 

See the full list of results here.

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