By Jesse Robinson
MORRIS, Minn. – The St. Scholastica women’s track & field team broke seven school records and four conference meet records on its way to capturing the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Championship.
The Saints finished with 274 points and won 11 events on the day. In second place was the University of Minnesota-Morris with 189 points. Northwestern College was third with 122 points. Martin Luther College was fourth with 12 points and Crown College was fifth with four points.
In running events, the 4x100 and 4x400-meter relay teams both broke school and conference meet records on their way to first place finishes. The 4x100 team of
Stacey Peterson (
Jr.-Gilbert, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert),
Katie Walrath (
Fr.-Thief River Falls, Minn.),
Tasha Hanson (
Fr.-East Grand Forks, Minn.), and
Samantha Johnson (
Fr.-Duluth, Minn./Denfeld) ran a winning time of 50.64 seconds. The 4x400 team of Peterson,
Jennifer Plaetz (
Fr.-Lucan, Minn./Wabasso),
Alex Aarestad (
Jr.-Halstad, Minn./Oak Grove), and
Nicole Hughes (
Fr.-Lake Nebagamon, Wis./Northwestern) ran a time of 4:06.07 seconds.
Aarestad also broke school records and won championships in the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles. In the 100-meters she had a school record time of 15.72 seconds, which was also a conference meet record. In the 400-meters she posted a winning time of 1:08.68 seconds. Jennifer Plaetz placed second in both events.
Stacey Peterson also broke school records in the 400-meter dash and the 100-meter dash. In the 400-meters, she ran a program-best and conference meet-best time of 59.26 seconds. In the preliminaries of the 100-meters she ran a school record time of 13.01 seconds. Samantha Johnson would finish second in the 100-meter dash final with a time of 13.25 seconds. Johnson would tie the school record in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.62 seconds to place second.
Others capturing conference titles in running events would be
Tara Connolly (
Jr.-River Falls, Wis.) in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 5:01.61 seconds. Nicole Hughes won the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:27.30 seconds. Connolly finished second in that event.
Katelyn Meger (
Jr.-Webster, Minn./New Prague) won the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:50.50 seconds.
Julia Curry (
So.-Woodbury, Minn.) placed second in the steeplechase with a time of 12:54.39 seconds.
In field events,
Alec Seeley (
Fr.-Cadott, Wis.) placed first in both the hammer throw and the shot put. She threw the hammer a distance of 37.76m. In the shot put, she threw a distance of 11.16m. Also winning a conference title was
Katelin Domitrovich (
Jr.-Ontonagon, Mich.) in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.51m.
Erin Anderson (
Sr.-Duluth, Minn./East) finished second in that event and was third in both the long jump and triple jump. Samantha Johnson was second in the triple jump with a distance of 9.65m.
Betty Suikhonen (
Fr.-Tower, Minn./Tower-Soudan) set the lone school record in field events as she tossed the discus 33.28m to finish third in that event.
The Saints will take part in a few more meets before the end of the season as they will compete at the Minnesota Open on Friday, hosted by the University of Minnesota. The action begins at 4 p.m.