Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
National Championship Qualifiers (all events)
Carthage Results
Wartburg Results
Mar. 7, 2022 - Responding to the pressure of the moment with a champion's resolve, the North Central College women's track and field team punched six tickets to this weekend's NCAA Division III Indoor Championships after a pair of Cardinals crashed the gate with personal-best performances on their final opportunities to qualify.
At Carthage College's Firebird Finale, North Central pole vaulter
Natalie Johnson cleared a personal-best height of 3.70 meters (12 feet, 1.50 inches), eclipsing a previous personal best by more than nine inches, to finish second in the event and claim the 20th and final qualifying spot for the national finals in addition to moving up to No. 7 on the Cardinals' all-time top 10 list indoors. The Cardinals are one of two teams with multiple entries in the pole vault, as
Kathy Myrda ranks 10th in the field with a mark of 3.82 meters (12'6.50").
Also placing second at Carthage were
Alexandra Draves in the 20-pound weight throw (16.75m, 54'11.50") and
Julia Benes in the mile run (5:28.47). Draves ranks seventh in the national championship field in the weight throw this weekend with a North Central-record distance of 17.80 meters (58'4.75"), making a second trip to the championship in the event.
At the Wartburg College NCAA Qualifier, facing a field of national-level talent, the Cardinals'
Lindsey Novak established a new North Central indoor record of 25.48 seconds in the 200-meter dash, placing sixth and making the cut for the national championship as the 19th-fastest time in the country. Novak, who also won the 400-meter dash at Wartburg in a personal-best time of 58.23 seconds, breaks the 200-meter record of 25.59 seconds set in 2002 by North Central Athletic Hall of Famer
Sue Kane '02.
Denise Partee and
Hannah Jones finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.88) and pentathlon (2,842), respectively, at Wartburg, while
Marcedes Jackson finished fifth in the 60-meter dash (7.81) after clocking a lifetime-best 7.76 in the preliminary heats. Jackson now ranks third in the Cardinals' history in the 60.
North Central is also one of two teams with two national qualifiers in the 60-meter hurdles.
Julia Babinec ranks third nationally with a time of 8.60 converted from the school-record effort of 7.99 seconds posted in winning the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) championship in the event Feb. 26. An All-American last spring with a sixth-place finish in the outdoor 100-meter hurdles, Babinec is set to compete at the indoor national finals for the first time, as is Partee, who qualifies 16th-fastest (8.86).
This year's indoor championships will be held Friday and Saturday at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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