Kolodge & Jacobusse Record School Records at Last Chance Meets

JOLIET, Ill. – Drew Kolodge and Jesse Jacobusse posted school record performances in the final week of the regular season for Michigan Tech Track & Field. Kolodge lowered his own school record in the 10,000m on Tuesday night at the GVSU 10-Event Last Chance Meet, while Jesse Jacoubsse broke the school record in the 800m at the St. Francis Last Chance Invite on Saturday.

"This week we split our top dog athletes into two directions, sending Drew and Landon to a Last Chance Meet at GVSU and Clayton, Sam, Tucker and Jesse to the Fighting Chance meet at St. Francis," head coach Kristina Owen said. "This strategy worked well for us with Clayton, Drew, Sam all moving up the national ranking lists and Jesse locking in a national qualification spot.

"The official qualification list will be published on Tuesday. I think our men have put themselves in good positions to make the list, but we'll have to wait and see who makes the final cut."

Jacobusse lowered her personal-best by over two seconds, running the most complete race of her season, clocking in at a blistering 2:08.00. Her time bests the current school record of 2:09.57 set by Liz Bloch in 2019.

St. Francis Last Chance Invite

The Huskies duo of Clayton Sayen and Sam Lange set out for national qualifying marks in the 1,500m on Friday evening and posted a respectable effort with compliments to Nik Thomas on pacing through the first two laps.

Lange took to the rail right behind Thomas through the first 300m when Sayen recorded a lap time of 1:00.62 on the second lap before the duo kicked into gear, clocking breaking 59 seconds for the final 400m.

Sayen's efforts placed him first in 3:45.27 for a season's-best while Lange was close behind, running a new personal-best of 3:46.11.

"The men's 1,500m last night was really exciting," assistant head coach Robert Young said. "I thought Nik did a great job of pacing Sam and Clayton through and setting up that really fast pace. It was also really nice to see them compete so hard to the homestretch. Hopefully that performance will get both Sam and Clayton into nationals but we will be waiting on pins and needles until Tuesday."

"This is the first time in my career I've been faced with a potential last race in my career," Sayen said. "I was looking to run something around 3:45 to give myself a chance to continue my season and I did just that. I owe so much credit to Sam Lange, who helped out with leading duties in the final lap and freshman Nik Thomas who did a beautiful job pacing through 900m and I would not have been able to run the time I did without him doing the work he did."

"It was really exciting to help the guys run some really fast times,' Nik Thomas said. "It was a really cool feeling getting to 800m and seeing them right on pace. I was really happy to bring out the team aspect of the sport in such a cool way."

Tucker Ringhand was the nightcap at the races on Friday evening, turning out a small personal-best in the 5,000m, placing fifth overall in 14:39.29.

"I decided after GLIAC's that I wanted to run one more race this year to back up my performance at the conference meet," Tucker Ringhand said. "I was on pace for the school record and provo mark throughout 3,000m but didn't have the juice the last 1,600m."

Jesse Jacobusse put together the perfect 800m race today, some would recall that exciting second lap split of 1:02.14 in the Phil Esten Challenge weekend, and Jacobusse did that and more.

The Chelsea, Michigan native blasted the first lap in 1:03.48 to lead the fast section of the women's 800m and had the strength to cover the final 400m in 1:04.53 to leave her old personal-best by over two seconds running 2:08.00 while placing her name in the record book.

"Jesse's 800m race was the stuff of dreams," Owen mentioned. "She's worked incredibly hard for this and I'm thrilled to see it pay off in such a big way. The performance is in the top-10 of Division II women this year, which locks in her spot at the national championships."

"We were really quite pleased with Jesse's race," Young added. "It was nice to see her put all the pieces together, I think she surprised herself how fast she actually ran."

"I have to give credit to the other girls in my heat, especially Carolin who is a friend of mine and was able to take us out at a hot pace and volunteered to do the hard part of leading the first lap," Jacobusse said. "I don't think I could have run that fast without her help and support all season long. I also have to say that I'm so thankful for Liz Bloch, the former record holder. I think she believed I would break her record more than I did and might have been more excited for me than I was. She has been my mentor and friend since I joined the team and there's nobody I look up to more."

GVSU 10 Event-Last Chance Meet

Two huskies made the trip downstate to Allendale, Michigan, in search of national qualifying marks on Tuesday (May 9).

Landon Cosby, the new school record holder in the pole vault, started the day in the men's pole vault. Cosby cleared 15-1.5 (4.61m) on his first attempt before failing to clear the next height of 15-7.25 (4.76m).

"Landon had a solid day in the vault," graduate assistant coach Dylan Gaines said. "Though it wasn't quite the day we were hoping for. He got some more experience and learned some lessons that we'll carry through into next season."

Another school record holder was the nightcap of the event as Drew Kolodge lowered his school record time in the 10,000m. He placed second in the event and lowered his school record to 29:36.09, shaving just over seven seconds off his effort to start the season, back on March 25 at the Raleigh Relays in North Carolina.

"Drew ran a strong smart race, positioning himself near the front and using the pacers to run right on pace through 5,000m," Young mentioned. "He then led for a while, reducing the front pack to just two with Drew just being edged over the final lap.

"We are really proud to see Drew lower his school record and hope that it is enough to get him in the National Meet."

"Drew is on the bubble but he's put himself into a good position," Owen added. "Now we cross all of our fingers and toes and see what happens on Tuesday."