St. Paul, Minn. – Saint John’s lead the way after the first day of competition, hosted by Hamline University in St. Paul, but it was St. Thomas who came out on top in the end, winning the 2008 MIAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

St. Thomas tallied 183 points for the team title, followed by Saint John’s with 161.5 points and host Hamline in third with 113.5 points. Bethel finished fourth with 81 points, Concordia was fifth at 78 points, St. Olaf was sixth with 69 points, and Carleton had 64 points. Augsburg finished in eighth with 38 points, Gustavus  was ninth with 31 points and Macalester was tenth with 27 points, and Saint Mary’s had 11 points.

St. Thomas swept the men’s and women’s team titles for the second time this season, as they did the same at Saint John’s for the indoor season championships.

An exciting day of competition at the Klas Center saw four repeat MIAC champions and 14 NCAA qualifying marks attained.

In one of the most exciting and competitive races of the day, the top four finishers in the 400 meter hurdles set NCAA qualifying times. PJ Theisen (Sr., New Prague, Minn.) of St. Thomas ran an NCAA automatic qualifying time at 52.64 for the championship.

Tom Ballinger (Jr, Wenatchee, Wash.), who ran an NCAA automatic qualifying time in his preliminary race (52.64) run on Friday, finished second in 53.20. He was followed across the line by NCAA provisional qualifiers Taylor Ferda (So., Whitefish, Mont.) from Bethel in 53.61 and the defending champion, Mike Leither (Sr., St. Cloud, Minn.) in 54.00.

In the first men’s event completed on the day, St Thomas took home the victory in the 400 meter relay with the team of Chris Bradford (So., New Brighton, Minn.), Sam Moen (So., Mahtomedi, Minn.), Phil Bastron (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis.), and James Ewer (Jr., Lakeville, Minn.). They finished with a time of 42.18. Bradford, Bastron, and Moen were on the team that captured the MIAC championship in this event in 2007.

Chris Erichsen (Sr., Spring Valley, Minn.) of Saint John’s captured the 3000 meter steeplechase title in the next event on the track, finishing in 9:39.82.

Piper Brandon Gleason took the first MIAC championship of day two for the host Hamline University with a late surge on the front stretch in the 1500 meter run, running the first men’s NCAA provisional time of the day for the men in 3:55.48.

A string of victories for Bethel on the track began with Ferda winning the championship in the 110 meter hurdles in 14.15. The day before he set an NCAA provisional mark in that event at 14.81.

Ferda’s teammate Josh Otto (Sr., White Bear Lake, Minn.) defended his MIAC title in the 400 meter dash, running the MIAC’s best time this season, and running an NCAA provisional qualifying time, at 48.49.

Bethel concluded the night with winning the last event on the track, the 1600 meter relay with Ferda, Zach Schlegel (Woodbury, Minn.), Eric Rhode (So., North St. Paul, Minn.), and Otto in 3:17.26.

Nick Ward (Fy., Coon Rapid, Minn.) won the lone championship of the meet for Augsburg, sprinting to the win in the 100 meter dash in 10.97.

At double the distance, Pat Jager (Jr., Tartan) from St. Thomas won the 200 meter dash championship in 22.28.

The second “three-peat” champion of the day was crowned with Brian Sames (Jr., Shakopee, Minn.) of St. Thomas winning the 800 meter run with an NCAA provisional time of 1:53.17.

In field events, another Royal athlete took home an MIAC title, as Jay Quick (Fy., Johnston, Iowa) jumped 1.95 meters (6’ 4 ¾”) for the win, edging out his own teammate, Eric Atherton (So., Roseville, Minn.).

Mark O’Connell (Sr., Edina, Minn.) tossed an NCAA provisional mark in the hammer throw on Saturday at 54.47 meters (178’ 8”). In that event, five of the nine finalists came from the host Pipers.

Another repeat championship came as Derek Marks (Sr., Lakeville, Minn.) went undefeated in four years of MIAC outdoor meets, throwing 50.47 meters (165’ 7”) for the his fourth straight shot put championship.