ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Thursday marked the final opportunity for members of the Yellowjacket track and field team to better their marks for 2023 in an attempt to qualify for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. was the host of the last chance meet Thursday, the Augustana Midwest Twilight.
 
The Yellowjackets had four members of the men's team competing Thursday, all of them needing to improve the marks to break into the top 20 in the nation, the threshold needed to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
 
Junior Earl Foster (Forest Lake, Minn./Spectrum) competed in a pair of events Thursday – one on the track and one in the field. He earned a ninth-place finish in the javelin, finishing the day with a mark of 46.20 meters. It was a strong throw for the day but well short of Foster's personal record. In the 400-meter hurdles, Foster finished with a time of 58.33 seconds.
 
Garrett Lynch (Portage, Wis./Portage), who has enjoyed a breakout year as a sophomore, also competed in one track event and one field event Thursday. In the 110-meter hurdles, Lynch finished with a time of 15.06 seconds, establishing a new personal record and shaving over a half-second off his previous best, set a couple weeks ago at the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Outdoor Championships.
 
In the pole vault, Lynch ended up placing 14th Thursday, clearing the bar at a height of 4.27 meters.
 
Ethan Westimayer (Laona, Wis./Laona) competed in one event Thursday, running in the 200-meter dash and finishing with a time of 22.65 seconds. Westimayer, who placed 26th in the loaded field, was just short of his personal record in the event.
 
Finally, thrower Nate Ohman (Lake Nebagamon, Wis./Northwestern) competed in a pair of events. In the hammer throw, an event Ohman won earlier this month at the UMAC Championships, he finished with a heave of 49.20 meters. Ohman placed 16th in the field and was a mere two-hundredths of a meter shy of tying his personal record. In the shot put, Ohman had a throw of 13.69 meters, which placed him 20th.
 
For the day, none of the four Yellowjacket competitors improved their marks enough to break into the top 20 nationally, bringing the 2023 outdoor track and field season to a conclusion.