<rleton women’s track and field team rose to the competition at Saturday’s University of Minnesota Parents’ Day Open, recording 21 season or personal best performances. One of the most impressive personal best performances was recorded by Laura Roach ’10, who had a seven second personal best in the mile run, to finish third, and second among collegiate athletes. Her time of 5:11.32 is the fourth fastest time run in the MIAC this season.
The second fastest mile time in the MIAC belongs to Katherine Wingert ’08, who was two tenths of a second away from winning the 1000 meter run on Saturday, finishing in 3:00.64, just behind her rival, Heather Jelen from Bethel. Her time is the third fastest time run in the MIAC.
Another top time in the conference was run by Heather Hoecker ’08, who finished third in the 3000 meter run, amongst a group of runners from the University of Minnesota. Her time of 10:27.25 is the second fastest run in the conference this year, and was a nine second personal best. She ran a controlled race early, letting the Minnesota runners push the pace, and then was able to work her way up with an early kick and finish strong.
Karen Campbell ran a personal best time and the third fastest time in the MIAC this year in the 5K, finishing second in 18:21.19, behind only an unattached runner.
Other top placing performances for the Knights included a fifth place finish for Molly Christian ’08 in the weight throw, seventh place finish for Irene Koplinka-Loehr in the 3K, a ninth place finish by Amy Elson ’10 in the triple jump, a tenth place finish for Kelsey Donald ’10 in the 400, and an eleventh place finish by Laura Sofen ’10, in the 3K.
The Knights will compete this evening at the Carleton Recreation Center, in their last competition before the conference championships next weekend in Collegeville, Minnesota, home of the College of St. Benedict and St. Joahn’s University. Hoecker is looking forward to conference competition. “I’m excited going in to conference having had a solid season of racing,” she said. “This season I’ve really enjoyed every opportunity I’ve had to compete and I want to carry this attitude into conference. Our team, and especially the returning distance runners, have really stepped it up this year and I think we are going to have some really incredible performances at conference.”
