St. Thomas men’s track and field members got a chance to test their legs in the first home outdoor meet of the season. The meet was non-scored.

The Tommies started slow with a fifth-place 4-by-100-meter relay team finish by sophomores Eyo Ekpo and Cody Jerabek and freshmen Matt Schroeder and Jeff Rada.

“It was real rough, we haven’t practiced all week due to weather,” Ekpo said. “We added one new guy and mixed up the order. It wasn’t as good as we liked.”

Ekpo usually jumps in field events but due to an injury his gradual recovery starts with running.

“You have to be able to run first before you can jump,” Ekpo said. “But I hope to be jumping by Thursday. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Freshman William Manaker ran the 1500-meter race and placed first in his heat.

“I just noticed everyone else was taking it slow, and I decided to take it a little harder than that,” Manaker said.

After the long-distance race came the 400-meter dash for junior All-American Mike Hutton and freshman Cody Jerabek. Hutton placed second overall with a time of 49.27, and Jerabek placed third with a time of 49.65.

Hutton said he does not normally run the 400-meters, but he changed up his regular routine.

“I’ll do 800s the rest of the year,” Hutton said. “It’s fun to break it up.”

Jeffery Rada ran the 100-meter dash, placing third overall with a time of 11.17, and said he liked running against his St. Thomas teammates.

“I got off to a slow start but came strong at the end,” Rada said. “It’s always a team competition between all of us. We always want to beat the other because we’re buddies.”

All-American senior Matt Griswold placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.29 and placed second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.42. He said he wasn’t pleased with his performance.

“Some days you just don’t run well, [and] that’s kind of what happened today,” he said. “I lost some focus at about the 200 mark. I wasn’t thinking about my race. I think that’s kind of what put me behind.”

He said he was focused on the other racers, which cost him time.

“I run my race and let them deal with me. It was kind of backwards today,” Griswold said. “It’s just one of those days. Sometimes you eat the track, other days the track eats you.”

Even though some of his athletes were not happy about their performance, coach Steve Mathre said the wind had an effect on his athletes’ performances.

“Overall, I think it was a good day, a cold day, so sometimes the performances don’t reflect where they should be at this time because of the elements,” he said.

Mathre said St. Thomas competed against some of the best teams in the state, regardless of the division they were from.

“Hamline and St. John’s are very good, and they are capable of winning a championship in our conference,” Mathre said. “Then of course you have DI [University of] Minnesota. So when you have all those teams on one site, it’s a good track meet.”

The men compete next Thursday, April 21, at Hamline University.

Hannah Anderson can be reached at ande5385@stthomas.edu.