Bethlehem, PA — The Messiah women’s track and field program showed its collective strength Saturday, winning its third consecutive Indoor Track & Field MAC Championship at Rauch Field House on the campus of Lehigh University.
The Falcons’ streak of two consecutive indoor conference championships came to an end on the men’s side (the team finished fourth), but not without a fight and many strong performances.
Messiah’s women — with 144 points on the day — won the league crown by a decisive 49 points over second-place Misericordia University (98 points) and third-place Elizabethtown College (81 points). Head coach Dale Fogelsanger was awarded MAC Women’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year for the third consecutive year.
It was the team that made the latest championship possible. Twenty different athletes from the women’s team scored points and made it to the podium on Saturday. Personal and season bests by many athletes kept the momentum rolling, while the sight of Falcons’ cheering one another on was constant.
“We had a couple athletes that we were going to hold out in certain events, so they perform better in others,” Fogelsanger said Saturday night. “But when we talked to those athletes, they wanted to be in every event. They kept saying the same thing: ‘MACs are about team.’”
Messiah’s women’s team proved their strength and unity as they took home the crown, with many strong performances highlighting the championship meet throughout the entire day: Fogelsanger’s group set one MAC championship meet record, two school records and had three national qualifying performances, six gold medals and a plethora of personal records.
Leading the way was senior Kristen Bates, posting four wins in four events on the day. Despite spraining her ankle in warm-ups, Bates began her day with a season-best and NCAA qualifying performance in the long jump, soaring 18 feet, 1 and ½ inches. Next she cruised into first in the 55-meters hurdles, with a MAC Championship meet record :08.07 — just one one-hundredth of a second off her school record clip set last year.
Her :08.07 stands as the top performance in the nation at the NCAA Division III level this year.
Next Bates won the high jump, this time as the underdog and in a jump-off with Delaware Valley College sophomore Meghan Donovan. Donovan and Bates tied at 5 feet, 3 and ¾ inches in the same number of misses prior to missing the final bar. Therefore, the jumpers competed in a jump-off that lasted for over 20 minutes as each waited for the other athlete to miss a height.
Finally, Bates cleared when Donovan missed, giving her the gold. Her mark also set a Messiah indoor school record breaking the 17-year old mark set by Meghan LeFevre in 1993.
Bates completed her competition with a first-place and national qualifying mark in the triple jump, winning by over a foot with a mark of 37 feet, 7 and ¼ inches.
Appropriately, Bates was named the MAC Women’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Year at the day’s conclusion.
Junior Grace Kaste showed her strength as she took on the challenging mid-distance duo and the 4 x 400-meter relay. Kaste claimed the title of conference champion in the mile with a strong closing 400 meters to win with a time of 5:12.72. Following that race, Kaste made a late move again in the 800-meter run to take second with a time of 2:21.01. Additionally Kaste, sophomore Lauren Harte, freshman Stephanie Miller and sophomore Brooke Airey took silver in the 4 x 400-meter relay with a time of 4:16.51.
In addition to their second-place finish on the relay team, Airey and Lauren Harte took points home in their individual events. Airey took fourth in a tight finish in the 800 meters with a time of 2:22.39. Harte decisively won the women’s 400-meter dash by over 1.5 seconds in a time of :60.75. Finally, Harte took third in the 200-meter sprint, finishing in :27.49.
Freshman Jessica Dillner, senior Tamara Fawcett, senior Jackie VanArsdale, and sophomore Abbey Reed formed a strong combination in both of the distance relays. The foursome finished second in the distance medley relay with a time of 13:11.79 and third in the 4 x 800 in a time of 10:12.13.
Also scoring points on the track was sophomore Ellamae Heisey, finishing sixth in the hurdles with a :09.47. Senior Erin Rhodes set the pace for majority of the mile event and finished fifth in a very tight finish — running a 5:19.25, only six-hundredths of a second behind fourth place.
Rhodes also led Messiah’s distance crew as three athletes made the podium in the 5000: Rhodes finished third with an 18:46.40 clip, while sophomore Mary Higgins finished fourth in a time of 19:30.07. Senior Julie Kramer took sixth in 19:39.57.
In addition to Bates’ dominance, many thrilling performances took place in the field on Saturday. Perhaps the most exciting was an astounding, six-foot personal record by junior Emily Strait in the weight throw. Her mark of 38 feet, 11 inches moved her up to fourth place, right behind junior teammate Alyssa Lengel. Lengel threw 39 feet, 2 and ½ inches to take home bronze in the weight. Freshman Hillary Pelkey improved her school record that she set last week by an additional eight inches to it, throwing 38 feet, 2 and 3/4 in the shot put. Her new school-record performance placed her second in the event.
In the jumps, sophomore Abby McDonald tied her lifetime personal best in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet, 6 inches to finish fifth. Junior Emily Ellis finished fourth in the high jump with a clearance of 4 feet, 9 and ¾ inches. Freshman Rachel Bjorkman finished fifth in the long jump with a leap 16 feet, 3 inches. She also took fourth in the pentathlon with a score of 2,430 points. Junior Kaitlyn Valis claimed fifith with a total of 2,404 points in the event.
While unable to secure yet another league championship on its side, the Messiah men’s team also put forth several outstanding efforts, finishing fourth (78 points) behind champion Widener University (143), DeSales University (108) and Elizabethtown (83).
The Falcons were strong in the pole vault competition, where sophomore Chris Vasaturo jumped a new personal best at 13 feet to tie freshman teammate Colin Resiler for the conference title. The tandem was also tied on misses, forcing the competition to a jump-off — Messiah vs. Messiah — for the gold. Vasatura and Resiler kept matching each other’s performances, not willing to give in to their teammate. Finally after many jumps, Resiler prevailed to claim the title of MAC Champion.
Freshman Tyler Newhook led a Falcons-dominant mile to also claim the title of MAC Champion in a time of 4:21.95. Following closely on his heels was senior Eddy Palmer (4:22.48, second) and senior Peter Shenk (4:26.41, fourth).
For Newhook and Shenk, however, this was only the beginning of their respective championship competition. Newhook finished just outside of the podium in the 5,000-meter run. Palmer ran a bold 800-meter event, attacking it only a short time after finishing the mile. He finished in fourth place, taking home more points for the Falcons. Finally Palmer and Shenk — along with freshman Aaron Reynolds and sophomore Scott Woolford — took home fifth in the 4 x 800-meter relay, finishing in a clip of 8:26.90.
Senior Artie Black finished the indoor season in dramatic fashion by finishing second in the 5,000. After leading several laps in this endurance event, he slipped to third prior to the final lap. With strong determination, Black surged to reposition himself to take home the silver with a time of 15:37.39.
In the 400-meter run, freshman Aaron Reynolds exploded from the slow heat of the mile to take bronze in a time of :52.56. Sophomore Drew Melnick finished right behind him in fourth in :52.92. Melnick also received fourth-place honors with sophomore Joshua Byler, senior Trevor Book and sophomore Craig Hutcheson in the 4 x 400-meter relay. The foursome ran a 3:38.14 to finish 36 tenths of a second from the medals. Also in the relays, the men’s distance medley relay team of junior Taylor Munoz (1,200), freshman Austin Wisler (400), freshman Scott Woolford (800) and freshman Aaron Reynolds (1,600) finished fourth with a time of 11:00.66.
Finally, the Messiah multi-performers took more points home for the Falcons, as junior Chris Boyd finished fourth overall in the pentathlon with 2,738 points. He won the final leg of the event — the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:45.13 — finished third in the high jump and fourth with a personal--best in the shot put. Sophomore Rich Pennisi finished fifth with a score of 2,714 points, leaning on strong performances and lifetime bests in the long jump, the high jump and the hurdles.
A limited roster will be competing at Virginia Tech’s Last Chance Meet this weekend. The NCAA DIII Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held the following week (Mar. 12-13) at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. Bates has qualified automatically in the hurdles and provisionally in the pentathlon, triple jump and long jump.
The women’s distance medley relay team (Rhodes, Harte, Airey and Kaste) and Eddy Palmer (800) have also qualified provisionally for the meet. More information regarding scheduling, tickets, directions, live broadcasts and results can be found at the official website of the 2010 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships.