The Northern Michigan track and field team conquered the competition in Wisconsin on Thursday, April 5 at the St. Norbert Twilight Meet, breaking another school record.
The Wildcats traveled to Schneider Stadium in De Pere, Wis. and placed first at the three-team meet, competing against St. Norbert University and Michigan Tech.
The ’Cats performed consistently in all events, with 12 first-place finishes. The meet was also the first track and field competition to take place there since 1980.
Head coach Tom Barnes said the performances at De Pere helped to set the team’s confidence going forward into the rest of the season.
“We’re feeling very good and encouraged about the rest of the season,” Barnes said. “I can definitely see that we’ll keep on getting better. The whole team is doing excellently, and they keep coming into competitions with great attitudes.”
In the 3000-meter steeplechase, junior Mallory Celaya provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in May and broke another school record. Celaya broke a record in the same event earlier this season. She ran a time of 11:07.62.
In the 100-meter dash, freshman Angelina Howard ran away with first place, leaving behind six other St. Norbert athletes with a time of 12.3 seconds. Howard also won the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.27 seconds. Sophomore Sydney Schultz also competed in the event.
The ’Cats continued their success in the 4 x100 relay, taking first place. In the 100-meter hurdles, NMU placed in the three top positions with redshirt freshman Sherice Hewett in first, followed by sophomore Katie Searles in second and senior Melissa Christensen in third.
In the 1500-meter run, freshman Larissa Halonen took first place and junior Nora Kiilunen took second.
In the 400-meter hurdles, junior Colby West swept the event in 1:05.91. Hewett also ran in the event, taking third. West said while the excitement of the event grew running against teammates, so did teamwork.
“The race was very exciting,” West said. “It was a smaller meet so having my teammate in the same heat as me and racing against her was great. There is always that friendly competition with your teammates and I think we both really pushed each other in the race to finish strong with good times.”
In the 800-meter run, the ’Cats placed in the top five, with senior Rachael Williams in second place and sophomore Katie Granquist in fourth.
Also running in the race were junior Kristina Donley, freshmen Abby Roche and Caitlin Keskey and sophomores Kristina Mattson and Alicia Romano.
The team also finished in the top five of 5000-meter run, with junior Rita Woitas, freshman Olivia Howard, freshman Emily Allen and junior Brittany Loomis running in the event.
Senior Bailey Franklin had two first-place finishes at the meet, taking first in the triple jump with 36 feet 4 inches and in the high jump with 5 feet 4 inches. Franklin is currently tied for second place nationally in the high jump.
In the pole vault, Jaime Roberts won first place with a jump of 12 feet 4 inches and is a provisional qualifier in the event for the NCAA Championships. Christensen placed first in the long jump, jumping 17 feet 3 inches with junior Mariah Beaman taking third. Christensen also placed second in the high jump. Beaman took first in the javelin throw with a distance of 120 feet 2 inches.
The ’Cats will be taking a week off to train for their next competition, which will be on April 20 and 21 at the Al Owens Classic in Allendale, Mich.
“Everyone is picking up where they left off from the indoor season,” Barnes said. “We are looking forward to seeing more improvements, and we’ll just keep getting better from here on out.”
