Results
By Andrew Springer, GoMessiah.com reporter
Bethlehem, PA — The run of Messiah dominance continues.
The Falcons' women claimed their fourth consecutive MAC Indoor Track & Field Championship Saturday at Lehigh University, scoring 103.5 points to better Elizabethtown College (98.5 points). Messiah's men finished fifth overall (47 points), and were led by junior Tyler Newhook, who was named the 2011 MAC Male Track Athlete of the Year.
The women's incredible four-peat earned Messiah head coach Dale Fogelsanger the 2011 MAC Women's Coach of the Year award — his fourth straight honor. Including a pair of awards on the men's side, Fogelsanger has now captured a MAC COY award six times in the last four seasons.
Saturday at Lehigh's Rauch Field House, Messiah's women posted many incredible performances, but none quite like sophomore Rachel Bjorkman's. Bjorkman was entered in the long jump, triple jump, high jump and the pentathlon, giving her a total of eight different competitions throughout the day.
Incredibly, she managed to score in all of them.
Bjorkman finished third in both the triple jump (10.87 meters — a personal best by two feet) and the pentathlon; fourth place in the long jump (5.09 meters), and sixth place in the high jump (1.47 meters), making her the team's highest individual point scorer on the day. Fellow pentathlete and senior Kaitlyn Valis managed to score in the high jump, finishing fifth with a career best of 5.05 meters.
Junior Katie Craven ran very well, despite fighting a nagging injury. Craven managed to win the 400-meter dash (1:01.28) and place second in the 200-meter dash (:26.66). Meanwhile, freshman Liz Martin stepped up for the Falcons and won the 55-meter hurdles with a personal best of :08.58 seconds, as well as taking third in the 55-meter dash (:07.55) and fourth in the 200-meter dash (27.29). Fellow freshman Amber Stephan also did very well, Finishing fourth in both the 400-meter dash (1:02.17) and the 55-meter hurdles (:08.97, a personal best).
Other women's highlights included senior Grace Kaste taking second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:22.35, junior Mary Higgins posting a season best in the 5,000-meter run (18:52.40) and placing fourth, junior Abby McDonald finishing sixth in the pole vault (2.60 meters), and senior Emily Strait throwing 12.67 meters in the weight throw, earning her third place.
In spite of all of the extraordinary efforts of the women, they still had just a narrow three-point lead over rival Elizabethtown with one event to go — the 4 x 400-meter relay. The Falcons knew that they needed to beat the Blue Jays in that race to secure the conference crown, and so that's exactly what freshman Amber Stephan, Craven, freshman Liz Martin, and Kaste did. Not only did that squad beat Elizabethtown, but they won the event with a time of 4:08.38, securing Messiah's fourth straight indoor conference title.
There were plenty of big performances on the men's side as well, but none quite like Newhook's. The Long Pond, Pa. native went out and won the mile run by running a NCAA-provisional qualifying time of 4:14.26. He then proceeded to win the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.59, just shy of another NCAA provisional qualifying time.
But Newhook wasn't done there, as sophomore Aaron Reynolds, junior Scott Woolford, freshman Trevor Praetsch and Newhook won the 4 x 800-meter relay, finishing in 8:04.26. These three gold metals helped Newhook secure his 2011 MAC Male Track Athlete of the Year honors behind 20 total points — the fourth most of any individual athlete competing.
In the pentathlon, senior Chris Boyd managed to finish third, while junior Richard Pennisi placed sixth. In the pole vault, sophomore Colin Resiler vaulted 4.10 meters (13 feet, 5 and 1/4 inches) earning him fourth place overall, while in the 5,000-meter run, junior Zach Hoagland ran a season-best time of 15:56.64, good for sixth place.
“We saw a ton of PR's (personal bests) and people stepping up today,” Fogelsanger said. “If we hadn't finished as high in the team score, I'd like to think we'd still be pretty happy with all of the impressive performances.”
With the conference meet over, most of the Falcons will begin training for the outdoor season Monday. A select few will compete at a last chance meet to try and qualify or improve their qualifying time before the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships, in Columbus, Ohio, March 11th and 12th, hosted by Capital University.
Details about the last chance meets will be posted at GoMessiah.com soon!
