GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's track and field team had Falcons in action at both the Kutztown Last Chance Qualifier and Penn State Tune-Up on Friday afternoon. Messiah turned in a number of strong performances at both events, with three program records falling at Penn State and four more Falcons qualifying for the MAC Indoor Championships at Kutztown.
The Conference Championships will get underway on Friday, Feb. 28 in Reading, Pa. at 2:00 p.m. The action continues on Saturday (Feb. 29) at 11:00 a.m. on the campus of Alvernia University.
Penn State Tune-Up Update
Messiah took three Falcons to the Penn State Tune-Up on Friday afternoon with
Kathryn Wiederrecht,
Ellissa Slader, and
Esther Seeland stepping onto the track to compete in individual events. All three produced not only top-five finishes, but also new program records.
Kathryn Wiederrecht took home third in the 200 Meter with a time of 25.74, breaking the program record of 26.18, set by Katie Craven in 2011. She was just a few spots ahead of teammate
Ellissa Slader, who earned sixth with a mark of 26.31. Wiederecht also finished fifth in the prelims of the 60 Meter Hurdles with a time of 9.43, but did not compete in the finals.
In addition to her strong finish in the 200 Meter, Slader set a new program record and finished fourth in the 400 Meter, crossing the line in 57.78. Slader previously set the program record in the event last season in a time of 58.51.
Esther Seeland also broke her old program record in the 800 Meter with a time of 2:10.03, lowering her previous record by nearly two seconds (2:11.70). Seeland finished third in the event against a pair of Division I runners, Victoria Tachinski (Penn State - 2:06.73) and Hayley Jackson (West Virginia - 2:08.11).
Kutztown Last Chance Qualifier Update
At Kutztown, Messiah earned a total of 23 top-10 finishes with
Taylor Wiederrecht winning the high jump with a mark of 1.55 meters and the Falcons registering four runner-up finishes on the day. The Falcons also had four new MAC qualifiers with
Brieanna Hess (800 Meter),
Amber Fogelsanger (800 Meter),
Cassidy Chandler (400 Meter), and
Justine Eckert (Weight Throw) all turning in times to compete next weekend at the MAC Indoor Championships.
The Falcons dominated the 3,000 Meter Run with five of the top-nine runners crossing the line with Messiah across their chest.
Joy Galbraith led the charge with a second-place finishing the event with a time of 11:33.48. Thirty seconds later, four-straight Falcons finished with
Leigha Southall (12:00.87), Kristen Howland (12:02.06),
Elise Davenport (12:20.36), and
Sarah Bath (12:28.70), finishing in sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively.
Messiah also picked up a handful of top finishes in the 800 Meter with
Brieanna Hess (2nd - 2:32.61),
Emma Johnsen (4th - 2:34.42),
Amber Fogelsanger (6th - 2:35.24), and
Madison Myers (8th - 2:36.15) all earning top-10 finishes.
In the mile,
Gabrielle Hahn (6:06.98) led a trio of Falcons in the top-10 with
Hannah Stolpe (6:23.18) and
Colleen Quinn (6:34.63) close behind in eighth and 10th, respectively.
Kelsie Kennedy took home a runner-up finish in the 55 Meter Hurdles, qualifying for the finals in a time of 9.15, before taking second in the finals with a mark of 8.98. Kutztown's Kira Solt won the event with a time of 8.38.
Ellie Longshaw also qualified for the finals in the 55 Meter Dash with a prelim time of 7.71. Longshaw duplicated that time in the finals to finish fifth in the event as the only DIII runner competing in the finals.
In the 400 Meter,
Kelsie Kennedy claimed a sixth-place finish with a time of 1:04.59.
Cassidy Chandler qualified for the MAC Championships with a time of 1:06.48 in the 400 Meter, finishing in 13th place.
Both
Julia Geisheimer (fourth) and
Ellie Longshaw (eighth) finished in the top-10 of the 200 Meter Dash with times of 27.70 and 27.97, respectively.
Messiah's 4x400 Meter Relay team of
Amber Fogelsanger,
Sarah Blessing,
Mikayla Lewin, and
Emma Johnsen finished as the runner-up in the event. They turned in a time of 4:35.18, trailing the winning time turned in by Kutztown by a little more than four seconds (4:31.02).
In the field events,
Taylor Wiederrecht won the high jump with a mark of 1.55 meters while
Abigail Vance finished in eighth place with a height of 1.25 meters. Three Falcons earned top-10 marks in the shot put with Wiederrecht leading the way with a distance of 10.42 meters to take fifth.
Erin Haines (ninth) and
Amanda Brown (10th) also finished in the top-10 with distances of 9.57 meters and 9.56 meters, respectively.
Justine Eckert also qualified for the MAC Championships with a toss of 8.34 meters in the weight throw, finishing 17th in the event on Friday.
