NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's track and field team had seven top-three performances on the final day of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday at Manitou Track.
Highlighted by first year
Claire Stein's conference title in the 400-meter hurdles, St. Olaf posted seven All-MIAC performances on day two while finishing third in the 12-team field. The Oles accrued 139 points to finish 12 behind second-place and No. 18-ranked Bethel University and 33 behind conference champion Concordia-Moorhead. St. Olaf's third-place finish was a one-spot improvement on its back-to-back fourth-place performances in the last two seasons.
On a day where she broke the school records in both of the hurdles events, Stein added a win in the 400-meter hurdles to her conference title in the heptathlon by edging Lauren Berg of the College of Saint Benedict by four one-hundredths of a second in 1:01.45. That time narrowly surpassed the school record of 1:01.78 set by Dani Larson '15 in 2013 and the 2010 facility record of 1:01.77, while likely punching Stein's ticket to nationals in the event with the No. 12 time in NCAA Division III this season.
Earlier in the day, Stein was the runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing one one-hundredth of a second behind Michaela Zenz of Bethel University in 14.77 seconds. That time topped the prior school record of 14.83 seconds shared by Stein from earlier this season and Rebekah Salfer '23 from 2023.
Sophomore
Abi Lindquist added a runner-up finish of her own in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a personal-best time of 11:08.01 to jump to fourth in program history in the event. Sophomore
Izzi Jaeckle recorded a third second-place performance on the track by taking second in the 200-meter dash (25.30).
First year
Abby Frei recorded St. Olaf's top showing in the field events on Saturday with a second-place result in the pole vault. Frei and Bethel's AnnaGrace Nelson both cleared 3.63 meters (11' 10 ¾"), but Nelson did so on her first try and Jaeckle on her second. Frei's clearance was the second-highest in program history.
In addition to her runner-up showing in the 200-meter dash, Jaeckle was third in the 400-meter dash (56.53) to earn All-MIAC honors while improving her No. 2 time in program history. First year
Eleanor Semple was fifth (57.64) to claim Honorable Mention All-MIAC honors.
Jaeckle and Semple were also part of St. Olaf's all-conference 4x400-meter relay that finished third (3:56.04), as juniors
Nora Mickelson and
Molly DiNardo made up the other two legs. The quartet's time was good for sixth in program history.
The Oles scored 12 points from four scorers in the 800-meter run, with senior
Isabel Wyatt and first year
Cora DenHartog taking fourth (2:12.82) and fifth (2:16.31), respectively. First year
Svea Frantzich was sixth in the triple jump (11.30m, 37' 1") to claim honorable-mention honors and was part of St. Olaf's sixth-place 4x100-meter relay (49.26) that also finished in the honorable-mention slots. Senior
Ashlyn Jore, first year
Evangeline Sappington, and sophomore
Sophie Herweijer joined Frantzich on the relay.
St. Olaf will compete at last-chance meets this week on Wednesday and Thursday, May 13-14 in the team's final attempts to qualify for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
