NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's track and field team took second and was just eight points away from winning the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Indoor Track & Field Championships for the first time ever on Friday and Saturday at Carleton College's Recreation Center.
St. Olaf sat atop the team standings after Friday's events and eventually settled for second with 136 points, eight behind Concordia-Moorhead, which won its first title since 1999. The Oles' 136 points were its second-highest total ever at the indoor conference meet, trailing only the 1994 team's total of 177.50 points.
Over the course of the three-day meet, St. Olaf had two individual conference champions, one conference champion relay, seven all-conference individual performances plus three relays (places 1-3), and 12 Honorable Mention All-MIAC finishes in individual events (places 4-6). The Oles also recorded seven performances that ranked on the program's all-time performances list and nine on the all-time performers list.
FRIDAY RECAP
After entering the day second in the team standings following the pentathlon, St. Olaf leapfrogged Concordia and took a 5.5-point lead into Saturday with a total of 70 points. Senior
Isabel Wyatt and St. Olaf's 4x200-meter relay posted first-place finishes to highlight the evening for the Oles.
Wyatt repeated as the MIAC indoor champion in the 800-meter run by edging Concordia's Kyla Nygaard by less than a second in 2:13.96 for the third individual indoor title of her career. Wyatt's time established a new facility record and ranks sixth on the Oles' all-time performances list.
Wyatt was one of four Oles to score in the 800-meter run as she was joined in the All-MIAC spots by first year
Cora DenHartog in third (2:16.46). Senior
Abbie Manhard (7th, 2:22.22) and junior
Molly DiNardo (8th, 2:22.52) also scored to help St. Olaf compiled 19 points in the event.
First year
Claire Stein, sophomore
Izzi Jaeckle, first year
Eleanor Semple, and first year
Evangeline Sappington broke their own school record on their way set last month on their way to winning the 4x200-meter relay (1:43.42). The relay's time was also a new facility record.
Senior
Grace Moeller, sophomore
Alice Wagner-Hemstad, junior Nora Mickeson, and senior
Ella Landis closed out the night with a third-place finish in the distance medley relay (12:32.36) to land All-MIAC honors with the No. 8 time on both program lists.
Senior
Lauren Walda recorded her second consecutive All-MIAC accolade and third-place finish in the 5,000-meter run (17:27.94), while Semple and Jaeckle sprinted to honorable-mention honors in the 400-meter dash. Semple took fourth (58.66) with the No. 5 performance in recorded program history, while Jaeckle was sixth (58.79). Sophomore
Abi Lindquist also claimed Honorable Mention All-MIAC honors in the one-mile run by coming in sixth (5:13.59).
Stein and classmate
Svea Frantzich booked spots in the finals of the 55-meter hurdles with top-eight time in the prelims. Stein won the third heat in 8.69 seconds to automatically qualify, while Frantzich was one of the two qualifiers to advance on times after clocking in at 8.68 seconds.
SATURDAY RECAP
Senior
Ashlyn Jore became St. Olaf's first MIAC indoor long jump champion since 1994, adding a title to her runner-up finish in 2024 with a winning mark of 5.57 meters (18' 3 ¼"). Jore took the lead on her third attempt with a mark of 5.47 meters and was just one one-hundredth of a meter ahead of Ellie Hernes of Bethel before logging the joint third-best mark in program history on the final jump of the competition. St. Olaf earned 17 points in the long jump after Frantzich and Stein also scored in fourth (5.31m, 17' 5 ¼") and seventh (5.23m, 17 2"), respectively.
In her quest to repeat as the 800-meter run and 1,000-meter run champion, Wyatt was edged at the line by one one-hundredth of a second to wind up second in the 1,000-meter run (2:57.68) with the No. 9 performance in program history. Senior
Ella Landis landed an honorable-mention accolade in the event in sixth (3:02.36), while first year
Anna-Britta Helmer also scored in seventh (3:03.14).
Stein and Frantzich both placed int eh top five in the finals of the 55-meter hurdles. Stein claimed All-MIAC honors in third (8.53), with Frantzich just behind in fifth (8.66). Both times ranked in the top six on the program's all-time performers list in the rarely-contested 55-meter event.
Jaeckle, Manhard, DiNardo, and Semple ran the No. 2 time on the Oles' performers list in their third-place finish in the 4x200-meter relay (4:01.53). St. Olaf had four other Honorable Mention All-MIAC finishes: senior
Lauren Walda in the 3,000-meter run (4th, 10:11.90), Jaeckle in the 200-meter dash (5th, 26.19), first year
Annika Walsh in the high jump (5th, 1.54m, 5' ½"), and sophomore
Logan Paulsen in the shot put (6th, 12.11m, 39' 8 ¾").
St. Olaf will send athletes to the Wartburg Last Chance Meet and/or UW-La Crosse Final Qualifier this coming weekend in their final attempts to qualify for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships.
