Men's Results: Day 1 - Day 2 - Final Results
Women's Results: Day 1 - Day 2 - Final Results
Grantham, PA — There may be no such thing as perfection in the sport of track and field, but the seniors on Messiah's women's team have come pretty close.
The Falcons captured their sixth straight MAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship Saturday at Messiah's own Starry Track, completing a four-year stretch in which the team has won every league title — both in the indoor and outdoor circuits.
The latest championship came by virtue of another dominating team effort, as the Falcons' women finished with 188.33 points — 20 better than runner-up Elizabethtown College.
Messiah's men — which entered the weekend seeded a fair fifth — moved up one spot to finish fourth out of 11 teams, earning 83 points overall.
Junior Katie Craven anchored the Falcons' strong effort on the women's side, earning MAC Track Athlete of the Meet honors after winning the 200-meter and 400-meter runs and serving as the anchor leg on both the 4 X 100-meter and 4 X 400-meter relay teams. Craven's 200-meter time of :25.34 set a new Starry Track record as well as bettering her own school record, while her 400 time of :58.63 was sixth-best in program history.
Craven then joined freshman Liz Martin, senior Grace Kaste and freshman Amber Stephan to set a new school and Starry Track record in the 4 X 400-meter relay, posting a 3:59.17 clip — bettering a Starry Track mark that had stood since 1984. The Falcons' 4 X 100 team was equally as impressive, as Craven joined Martin, Stephan and sophomore Courtney Grammar to post a :49.12 — also a new school record.
Martin was the high point scorer for the meet, taking first in the 400-meter hurdles and second in both the 100-meter dash and the 100-meter hurdles. Her hurdles performance of :14.88 qualified her provisionally for NCAA Division III National Championship competition, while the mark moved her up to second on Messiah's all-time list. Martin also tied her season best in the 100-meter dash with a :12.36, also moving her to second in the program's all-time top 10 list.
Messiah's captains provided great leadership throughout the season to the women's team, and over the weekend they set the tone for the team to follow with many strong performances. Senior Kaitlyn Valis started championship Saturday with a lifetime personal best in the triple jump (34 feet, 6 and ¾ inches) — on her very last attempt — to move up several places (fourth) and gain several more points for the team. Valis also finished fifth in the heptathlon Thursday and Friday, posting a lifetime personal-best 3,627 points and improving her mark on Messiah's top 10. Finally, she earned five more points for the team finishing in fourth in the long jump.
Kaste, meanwhile, ran the 800-meters, the steeplechase and the 4 X 400-meter relay combination fearlessly. Kaste came up big running an impressive 60-second split on the winning relay team and earned three points in the steeplechase and six with a bronze-medal finish in the 800 — all in her final competition on her home track. Classmate Alyssa Lengel earned 15 points with a second-place finish in the hammer throw, complementing third in the Javelin and eighth in the discus.
Junior Mary Higgins led the way for Messiah in the distance events. She set the pace for the first four miles in the 10,000-meter run and finished in fifth place and then improved her seed in the 5,000-meter event with a strong finish to move to seventh and earn two points.
In addition to her performance in the two winning relay teams, Stephan finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles and, after winning prelims, took bronze in the 400-meter hurdles. Junior Brooke Airey placed fifth in the 800-meter run, while freshman Kaitlyn Hoover moved up to score a point in the 100 hurdles running a new personal best performance.
Hoover also earned three points with a sixth-place finish in the heptathlon (2,903 points) and junior Ellamae Heisey took eighth (2,455 points). Sophomore Tiffany Mills came up huge in the 400-meter hurdles finals running a two-second PR to finish in fourth. The women's 4 X 800-meter relay team of junior Abby Reed, sophomore Stephanie Miller, sophomore Jessica Dillner and Airey finished in fourth-place early in the championships Thursday night. Sophomore Rachel Bjorkman finished second in the triple jump with a performance that moved her up to ninth on Messiah's top 10 list, while her second-place result in the high jump moved her to sixth on the Falcons' all-time list. She also finished fifth in the long jump.
Also scoring in the high jump were sophomore Kira Maier (sixth) and freshman Natalie Hill (eighth).
A week after qualifying for national competition, sophomore Hillary Pelkey won the javelin, placed eighth in the long jump and fourth in the shot put. Also in the field, Maier finished fifth overall in the discues, while senior Emily Strait finished fifth in the hammer throw.
On the men's side, the Falcons came up big, outperforming their seed and coming through as the underdog for many events. Senior Jared High threw a lifetime personnel best and new school record in the javelin to take the silver medal with a mark of 197 feet, 11 inches. High was the man of the hour on the field, as multiple athletes from competing schools celebrated his big effort. His performance currently places him 17th on the NCAA Division III list for this season.
Junior Tyler Newhook continued his strong performances at the MAC Championships, showing his versatility as well: Shortly after finishing in third in the 1,500-meter run Newhook finished strong in the 800-meter event to win the gold.
Additionally, Newhook anchored both the 4 X 800-meter relay team and 4 X 400-meter relay team of junior Scott Woolford, sophomore Aaron Reynolds and freshman Trevor Praetsch to finish third in both — the latter event moving Messiah from fifth to fourth place overall in the final team standings.
Reynolds also ran a large lifetime personnel best in the 400-meter run to take silver, while Praetsch came out hard running in lane one of the 400-meter hurdles finals to run a lifetime personnel best and take the bronze.
Junior Caleb Liddick ran a personal record in the steeplechase to place seventh. The men's 4 X 100-meter relay team of junior Max Fritsche, sophomore Derek Brown, freshman Tim Hampton and freshman Ricardo Plummer qualified for finals as the underdog and placed seventh in the finals.
Sophomore Colin Reisler took second in the pole vault after a jump-off for first place, and junior Rich Pennisi finished eighth. That mark complemented Pennisi's Friday win in the decathlon with 5,255 points. The Collingswood, New Jersey native led the decathletes with the top performances in the 400-meter run, the 1,500-meter run and the pole vault, helping Pennisi set a new personnel best and move up to sixth on Messiah's top 10 list.
Senior Derek Forney placed eighth in the decathlon to earn another point for the team. Junior Zach Hoagland led the way in the distance events, running a bold lifetime personnel best in the 10,000-meter run and moving to fifth on the top ten list, just ahead of Olympian Brian Sell. He also followed it with a good performance in the 5,000-meters to place eighth overall.
Messiah head coach Dale Fogelsanger was honored with his sixth consecutive MAC Women's Coach of the Year honor. Lebanon Valley's Cynthia Adams was named the league's rookie of the year, while Misericordia's Ashlee Ward earned conference field athlete of the year honors.
DeSales University captured the men's team championship with 183 points, the Bulldogs' first team title after competing in the MAC for 14 years. DeSales head coach Al Weiner was named MAC Coach of the Year. Delaware Valley College's Travis Pitts was named the track athlete of the year while teammate Tom Masterson earned field athlete of the year honors. Widener University's Tyler Schmalhofer was voted MAC Rookie of the Year.
