MANKATO, Minn. – Yellowjacket Earl Foster (Forest Lake, Minn./Spectrum) is having himself a year.
 
The senior has routinely found himself near the top of the leaderboard week in and week out, in multiple events. It seems to be the javelin throw, however, is emerging as Foster's top event. And Friday, he was the top performer in his top event.
 
At the MSU-Mankato Invitational, a large event with 13 teams across all NCAA divisions competing, Foster won the javelin throw, helping the Yellowjackets to a ninth-place finish at the Mark Shuck Outdoor Track and Field Complex.
 
Foster was the class of the field in the javelin, winning the event with a heave of 52.88 meters, to earn the Yellowjackets 10 points. Foster destroyed the rest of the field, bettering runner-up Denver Decker of the University of Sioux Falls by 4.44 meters.
 
Another strong performance was turned in by Dylan Uitto (Ashland, Wis./Ashland), who placed sixth in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:05.60, establishing a new personal record.
 
Meet Notes

• In the 5,000 meters, Zach Reese (Zimmerman, Minn./Spectrum) earned a top-five finish, crossing in the line with a time of 15:59.69.
• Not far off the pace of Reese in the 5,000, Ben Plackner (Bovey, Minn./Greenway) placed ninth with a time of 16:25.72, which set a new personal record.
• Garrett Lynch (Portage, Wis./Portage) earned a top-ten finish in the pole vault, placing eighth with a mark of 4.06 meters. Rene Sims was just outside the top ten, placing 11th after clearing a height of 3.91 meters.
• In the 200-meter dash, Ethan Ashworth (Danbury, Wis./Webster) earned a personal record with a time of 23.57 seconds.
• Dominick Meisner (Bloomer, Wis./Bloomer) placed 13th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and in the process set a new personal record, coming in with a time of 10:56.96.
• The Yellowjacket crew in the 800 meters had a good day, with three runners setting season bests – Deryck Parduhn (Ashland, Wis./Ashland) (2:11.04), Marshall Swanson (Ashland, Wis./Ashland) (2:12.75) and Ben Addler (Castle Rock, Colo./Douglas County) (2:24.88).
• In total, the Yellowjackets set 11 personal records and season bests Friday.

Earlier in the week, Kieran Johnson (South Range, Wis./Northwestern) competed at the Viking Twilight Invitational, hosted by Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Johnson, competing in the 10,000 meters, finished with a time of 33:11.29, which put him in third place as the only runner in the top five that wasn't from Lawrence. The time set a new personal record for Johnson.
 
The Yellowjackets will return to action Thursday, April 24 when they compete at the Rider/Bolstorff Invite at Macalester College.