DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Knox College men's and women's track teams opened up their indoor season on Saturday at St. Ambrose University for the Battle at the Hive, the first of two meets there to begin the year. 

The Prairie Fire had six athletes finish in the top eight in their respective events, split evenly among the men and women, not to mention some performances that landed on Knox's top-10 lists. The best performance came from sophomore Stephanie Nelson in her Knox debut, finishing fourth in the weight throw with a toss of 12.93 meters, which also gives her the third longest throw in program history and the longest in 15 years.

Another sophomore, Kenzie Ketterl, claimed sixth in the women's shot put by hurling it just over 10 meters (10.02). On the track, senior Franny Hilliard ran the 800 meters in 2:52.63, good for eighth.

For the men, sophomore Max Lawrence placed sixth in the men's 800 meters in 2:17.32, as did senior Anthony Vazquez in the triple jump with a leap of 12.34 meters. The men also had a thrower take eighth in junior Steve Dzolic, who sent the weight throw 12.94 meters.

• Although first-year Jayvon Bolds did not qualify for the finals of the 60 meter dash in his collegiate track debut with a time of 7.21 seconds, he only narrowly missed out by a mere four-thousandths of a second plus became the 10th fastest runner in the event in Prairie Fire history.
• Senior Jacob Anderson ran the fastest time in the 60 meter hurdles (not converted from 55 meters) in program history in 9.54 seconds and just narrowly missed the top 10 in the long jump with his leap of 6.18 meters.
• Another rookie had a solid showing in the men's shot put as Colson Elisme placed 10th out of 25 competitors (and second among first-years) with a throw of 12.40 meters.

The Prairie Fire head back to St. Ambrose next Saturday for the Bumble Rumble.