The Valparaiso University track and field teams ended their indoor regular season on Saturday, as select athletes traveled to Notre Dame for the Alex Wilson Invitational. Sierra Fischer (Brookfield, Wis./ Brookfield [Carroll]) and Emanuel Daggett (Chicago, Ill./ Gavit) each set two top-5 times in the teams’ final meet before the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships.

How It Happened

• For the second consecutive meet, Fischer set the program record in the 400-meter dash. She finished fifth out of 16 runners, and her time of 56.73 betters the record she set one week ago at Grand Valley State by over a quarter of a second. Fischer is now over one second faster than Karie Dahlgren’s second-place mark of 57.82.
• After re-upping her 400 record, Fischer finished fifth in the 200-meter dash. Her time of 25.44 moves her to second all-time for Valpo (she was previously third), and Amanda Body’s 2009 record of 25.35 is now less than one-tenth of a second away.
• Daggett set a career-best mark in the 400-meter dash, crossing the line at 49.22 and in eighth place. The time vaults the Valpo senior into the program record book, as he is now fourth in Valpo history for the event after passing Andrew Butts’ 2014 time of 49.77.
• Daggett also toppled his career best in the 200-meter dash at 22.53. That time edges out Jeru Lollis’s 2016 time of 22.58 for fifth all-time.
• Ben Sekuloski (Lowell, Ind./ Lowell) ran alongside Daggett in the 400 and 200, finishing at 50.41 and 22.66, with the latter representing an indoor best and tying a career best set back in March of 2017.
• TJ Weinzimmer (Northbrook, Ill./ Glenbrook North) set a season-best in the triple jump by three-and-a-half feet (over one meter), hitting 45-9 (13.94m). The mark is less than one inch away from his career best, which he set nearly a year ago to the date at the 2019 MVC Indoor Championships.
• The squad’s multis got in some extra work in a few of their events. Will Maidment (Woodstock, Ill./ Woodstock) added a foot-and-a-half to his long jump PR when he led the team with a 19-11¾ (6.09m) mark. Collin McCullough (Heartland, Wis./ Arrowhead) and Zack Fortener (Byron, Ill./ Byron) also competed in the event, landing at 19-5¼ (5.92m) and 16-6 (5.03m), respectively.
• Shannon Lahey (Dixon, Ill./ Dixon)—the team’s lone female multi-event athlete—hit 16-0¼ (4.88m) in the long jump.
• Maidment also earned a third-place finish in the high jump after clearing 6-2¾ (1.90m) on his first attempt.
• Jeremy Seiler (Angola, Ind./ Fremont) led the team in the pole vault when he cleared 14-11 (4.55m). Evan Snow (Jackson Township, Ohio/ Jackson) set a season-best and neared his indoor PR with a height of 14-5¼ (4.40m).

Thoughts from Associate Head Coach James Overbo

“Sierra and Emanuel have started figuring out how fast they can run. Their confidence is growing, and they are getting better with every race.”

“Ben ran a tremendous race but ran into some bad luck when he got kicked coming around the last turn; he was keeping pace with Emanuel up until then. Although his time today was a little away from what he expects, Ben is ready to show up big in the championships, and I think that is evidenced by his PR in the 200.”

“TJ has been patiently dealing with some injury issues this season. We have been taking our time getting him healthy, and we did what we needed to do in this tune-up with an indoor PR. I know his performances haven’t been where he would like them to be so far this year, but he won’t have a problem competing next week.”

Up Next

Valpo will travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa for Day 1 of the MVC Indoor Championships on Feb. 29, hosted by UNI. Links to live coverage will be available on ValpoAthletics.com.