Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, tkgallisath@noctrl.edu

Results

CHICAGO (Jan. 29, 2023) - The North Central College women's track and field team showcased its sprints group at the Gately Indoor Track and Field and turned in a third-place finish in the 19-team field at the Aurora Grand Prix on Saturday.

Julia Babinec turned in the Cardinals' only event win of the day in the 60-meter hurdles after having the top time in the preliminary round (8.91) and posting an 8.73-second run in the finals. Teammates Denise Partee (8.94) and Shannon Lawler (9.25) were alongside her in the finals heat finishing in third and fourth respectively. 

Marcedes Jackson was seeded fourth after the preliminary round of the 60-meter dash where she prevailed in the finals to finish second overall with a time of 7.83 seconds. Second-place showings also came in the field as Natalie Johnson matched her personal best effort of 12 feet, 1.50 inches (3.70 meters), good for a two-way tie at No. 10 in the national rankings and seventh in program history. Alexandra Draves also finished second in the weight throw with her best throw of the day, 53 feet, 9.75 inches (16.40m)

Gwen Berenyi achieved a personal best of 11 feet, 7.75 inches (3.55m) to place third in the pole vault. Berenyi's mark breached the program's top 10 list at No. 10. Also finishing third on the day was Lindsey Novak in the 400-meter run with a near two-second personal best of 56.81 seconds. Novak jumped five spots in the program's history to sit second in the event and ranks fourth nationally. Creating a trend for the year, Novak also rebroke her program record in the 200-meter dash, turning in a 25.29-second effort to finish fourth in the event. Novak ranks sixth nationally with a conversion time of 24.99 seconds. 

The University of Chicago compiled 125.5 points to finish first in the team standings with Loras (119.5) and North Central (67.5) taking second and third, respectively. Carthage (46) finished fourth and Chicago State (32) finished fifth out of the 19-team field. 

The Cardinals are set to compete at the Carthage Combined Event and at Olivet Nazarene University's Walter Cramer Open on Friday, Feb. 3, and Saturday, Feb 4. 

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