By McKenzie Van Loh | Sports Editor

Junior Karl Olsen shakes his legs one more time before getting on the blocks for the last heat of the 200 meter dash at Macalester College. Olsen approaches lane five beside Jack Schultenover, a Macalester runner who had clocked times under 23 seconds before- a goal for Olsen.

With Schultenover in his peripherals, Olsen jolted off the blocks with hopes of at least keeping his pace.

Within seconds, Olsen converged with Schultenover’s steps, aligning strides for a few short moments until emerging to the front of the pack.

19…20…21…22.45.

Olsen finishes first in his heat, and immediately looks at the scoreboard. 22.45. A lot better than he expected.

30 seconds after finishing the race, Bethel alumni Mark Rice finds Olsen to inform him that he had just broken the all time school record of 23 years by .03 seconds.

“I didn’t really know exactly what (The record) was,” Olsen said. “so when I saw the time I didn’t think I broke it.”

Olsen’s beaming parents congratulated him soon after the finish where head track and field coach Andrew Rock told them the news.

“All (Karl) said was, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’ Yep. You broke the school record,” Rock said with a chuckle.