Final Results  |  MAC Track & Field Indoor Championships Homepage

by Caleb McGaughran, GoMessiah.com reporter

Bethlehem, PA – The Falcons brought their indoor season to a triumphant end as the men seized second place and women fourth at the MAC Championship. Widener University won the conference title for the men with 188 points, while Lebanon Valley College claimed the women's title with 128 points.
 
"We put our work in this season," said Coach Dale Fogelsanger. "We've competed at unscored meets and it all built up to this point—and we did great today!"
 
Among the top highlights for the men was a first place finish in the men's 4x400 meter relay.  The relay squad, consisting of Alex Yoder, Nicholas White, Braden Miller, and Trevor Praetsch won with a time of 3:28.08.
 
"This was our second year in a row that we won the 4x400 meter relay," said Yoder. "Our strategy was to take the lead, hold it and avoid any 'traffic' from other competitors."
 
The relay team was able to accomplish that goal as Yoder led the first leg, with a strong lead on Messiah's competitors. The strategy worked as White and Miller carried the momentum in the second and third legs, with Praetsch anchoring the race to lead them to their gold-medal finish.
 
Messiah's men's and women's 4x800 meter relay teams also performed well, the women coming to a third place finish at 10:01.26, while the men also grabbed third at 8:09.59.

In addition to their performances in the 4x400 meter relay, Yoder and Praestch scored in the men's 400 meter dash. Yoder ran an indoor personal of 49.68 seconds, leading him to a solid first place finish. Yoder's time also put him among the top twenty Division III athletes in the country. Praetsch finished fifth overall and first in his heat, also running an indoor personal best of 51.54 seconds.
  White also performed well in his other events placing first in finals of the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.35 seconds. White's time not only tied his personal best, which is also the current school record, but was only two hundredths of a second off the conference record.
 
Additionally, both Yoder and White ran well in the 200 meter dash, Yoder placing third overall (22.68) and White placing fourth overall (23.04).
 
On the women's side, Liz Martin contributed to the team in several areas including a season best time of 9.33 in the 60 meter hurdles, securing a silver medal in the event.
 
In the jumps, Kaitlyn Hostetler placed fourth in the triple jump (10.26m, 33'-08.00") and tied her personal best of 5.10m (16'-08.75"to place second in the long jump. According to Coach Jason Brown she was ranked first in the conference for the long jump up until Olivia Jendrezewski of Lebanon Valley jumped 5.13m(16'-10.00") on her final attempt for her last jump.
 
Eriskha Eugene and Marie Johnson also performed well in the jumps, Eugene grabbing fourth in the long jump (4.91m, 16'-01.50") and Johnson placing fifth in the triple (10.25m, 33' 07.50").
 
Messiah's pole vault crew showed their talent this weekend, too, as Tim Moses and Rachel Robison received gold medals in their respective events. Moses vaulted 4.85m (15'11.00") while Robison cleared 3.30m (10'-10.00"). Drew Engle also performed well, placing sixth in jumps at a height of 4.25m (13'-11.25").
 
Engle also brought points to team as he competed in the men's heptathlon. Engle placed second in the event with a total of 4532 points. Tim Hampton, Andrew Ausel, and Dane Cornelius also competed in the heptathlon, Hampton setting three new personal bests out of the seven events.
 
Four Messiah women competed in the women's pentathlon, each securing personal bests in several of the events. Rebecca Querfield performed very well, placing third with a score of 2652 points. Alyssa Mills also scored for the team in the pentathlon, finishing fourth with 2574 total points.
 
Among the other highlights of the day was Trevor Stutzman's first place finish in the men's shot put. Stutzman was unsure if he would throw at the conference championship, due to an abdomen injury, but decided he could try to place with only a "half-turn" throw. Stutzman still performed very well, throwing 15.43m (50-07.50) to secure his first place spot.
Messiah's men and women also raced well in the 5,000 meter run. Tasha Becker placed sixth in the event, running an indoor personal best of 19:12.02, after already having run the 3,000 meter race earlier in the day. Although not scoring in the event, both Jennifer Bove and Emma Barbagallo ran personal bests (19:31.49, 19:52.07) both dropping about 40 seconds from their previous times.
 
In addition, Messiah's Jared Schatz ran an incredible race, receiving a bronze medal with a personal best time of 15:30.01. Tyler Sensenig also had good races, Sensenig racing a personal best of 15:45.57, and Fleming running a second-best indoor time of 16:27.01, after already running the 3,000 meter race earlier in the day.
 
"We had over thirty personal records at the conference championship today," said Fogelsanger. "These will pull our progression toward the outdoor season as we seek to continue to improve our performance as a team."
 
Following their accomplishments at the conference championship, the Falcons will return to action as a full squad on March 28 and 39 at the Danny Curran Invitational hosted by Widener University. In the meantime, those athletes looking to still qualify for NCAA nationals will compete at a last-chance meet at Columbia University.

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Friday Update - 10:00 PM

by Caleb McGaughran, GoMessiah.com reporter

The men's and women's track teams have come out strong this weekend as they began competing at the MAC Indoor Track and Field Championship tonight.
 
Messiah's Drew Engle is currently ranked fourth in the men's heptathlon, at 2395 points. Engle had a number of fine performances including a second place finish in the 55m dash, (6.90 seconds) and high jump (1.79m, 5' 10.50"), as well as a third place finish in the long jump (5.99m, 19' 8").
 
Tim Hampton has also performed well, finishing third in the 55m dash (7.02) and fourth in the long jump (5.76m, 18' 10.75"). Hampton is currently ranked ninth among a field of thirteen competitors with a score of 1937.
 
The men's heptathlon will continue tomorrow as the remainder of the MAC event also take place.

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