Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Results
Feb. 23, 2019 - Overwhelming the rest of the competitive field by scoring large numbers of points across nearly every one of the meet's 17 events, the North Central College women's track and field team enjoyed a relatively comfortable pat to its sixth College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Indoor Championship on Saturday, seizing victory by the second-largest margin in the meet's history at Al B. Carius Track.
The Cardinals totaled 184.50 points to outdistance runner-up and two-time defending champion Wheaton College's score of 112. The 72.50-point margin is second only to North Central's 2011 team, which won by 117 points. It is the Cardinals' sixth CCIW indoor title and their first since 2014.
North Central claimed individual championships in four events, two of which came on the first day of competition on Friday. Hailey Dammeier achieved a personal best of 317 points to win the pentathlon with a score of 3,261, which moves her up to No. 2 on the Cardinals' all-time list in the event. Dammeier took the lead after the third of the five events and closed out the win with a personal-best time of two minutes, 22.37 seconds in the 800-meter run.
The Cardinals also prevailed in the distance medley relay on Friday, doing so for the fourth straight year. The team of Natalie Cook, Ashley Buado, Kyle Draghi and Dianne Barajas clocked a time of 12:27.43 to finish four seconds ahead of second-place Illinois Wesleyan University. The hosts used sizable personal bests to win a pair of jumping events on Saturday, as Taiah Gallisath moved up to fourth in the program's history with a leap of five feet, 5.75 inches in the high jump before Kelsey McLaurin delivered a gargantuan personal record in the triple jump on her final attempt of the competition.
Having already surpassed her previous school record of 38'3.25", McLaurin sailed more than a foot past her best effort on her sixth jump of the day to secure a winning mark of 39'7.75". The performance surpassed the previous CCIW championship meet record by six inches and ranks as the second-best effort nationwide among NCAA Division III competition this season.
The Cardinals also placed second in seven events, including three runner-up finishes by Madelyn Scopp in the mile (5:12.21), 3,000 meters (10:33.53) and 5,000 meters (18:02.17). Ashley Buado finished second in the 800-meter run (2:19.07), as did Katie Bonney in the 400-meter dash (58.38), Milia Harris in the 60-meter hurdles (9.05) and Kathy Myrda in the pole vault (11'4.50") as all four recorded personal-best performances.
Stephanie Garcia lowered her North Central freshman record to 7.79 seconds with a third-place finish in the 60-meter dash. Third-place points also came following a 27-second personal best by Emma Jourdan in the 5,000 (18:15.75) and a 10-inch season best by Keren Parra in the long jump (17'4.75"), and Naomi Yamane added a third-place finish in the shot put as well (41'9.25").
The Cardinals will send a group to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Final Qualifier on Saturday, the team's final chance to qualify for the Division III Indoor National Championships in Boston, Massachusetts Mar. 8-9.
