The Jackrabbits men’s and women’s track and field teams had some of their best performances against some of their best competition Jan. 28 at the Bill Bergan Invitational in Ames, Iowa.

Against competition from Big Ten and Big 12 opponents, SDSU saw some of their best performances, including seven performances that were the best the Jacks have had all season. Head coach Rod DeHaven said such excellence isn’t uncommon at the Bill Bergan Invitational.

“We always have our kids getting excited to go compete at Iowa State because their facility and level of competition is so great, we know we’ll get good performances out of everyone.” DeHaven said.

For the men, Michael Krsnak was the top performer, taking third-place in the 3,000 meter run. Krsnak was a mere two seconds behind the lead and ran the best time in the event for the season by a 25 second margin. Jared Foote ran a 22.48 second 200 meter dash, followed by Brandon Priebe .14 seconds later. Rounding out the day for the Jacks was Jake Schneller, who finished sixth in the mile with a time of 4:08.76. Foote and Schneller also ran their best times in the season.

The men were competing without Jared Vlastuin, who is usually one of their best performers. Vlastuin was competing at the Minnesota State University Open, which DeHaven said gave him a better chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships. DeHaven noted that the Minnesota State jumping facilities are superior to that of Iowa State.

Vlastuin set a SDSU indoor record in the long jump, breaking his own record by four inches, and won both the long jump and high jump events. Calvin Cammack won the pole vault by posting a season-best 15’ 9 1/4”.

The women also had a banner day at the Bergen Invitational, and, like the men, broke several season records in the process. Lora Shearer continued her consistent season by posting a season-best in the triple jump en route to a fourth place finish and also recorded an eighth place finish in the 60 meter hurdles.

Ashley Odegaard also posted a season-best in one of her events, the 200 meter dash, and placed 10th-place. Odegaard also finished ninth in the long jump and fourth in the 60 meter dash.

Also running season-best times for the women were Megan Bren, who finished eighth while posting her best time in the 200 meter dash, Tera Potts, mile, and Erin Hargens, 3000 meter run. Brooke Garner also placed fifth in the weight throw.

The next outing for the men’s and women’s teams is the John Dalton Classic in Vermillion. DeHaven said that with the recent improvement he’s seen, he is starting to gain confidence in both teams, especially the men.

“The men are starting to get some momentum,” DeHaven said. “It’s getting to the point now where we have one person in every event that can compete and that we have a lot of confidence in.”