 "Photo: Eric Houle")
Freshman Shaye Maurer led the women’s track team, breaking the school’s pentathlon record at the Summit League Conference Championships, as both men’s and women’s teams captured third place in Fargo, N.D. Sunday and Monday.
Also named The Summit League’s Newcomer of the Year for women’s indoor track, Maurer turned in a score of 3,426 points for the pentathlon, which broke former school record holder Kelly Miller’s by 78 points set in 2000.
She placed third in the pentathlon and took second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.69 seconds.
“I’m excited about how I did,” Maurer said. “I never thought it would go that good, I mean, I had high hopes and everything but never expected this.”
Aside from Maurer’s success in her first indoor season as a T-Bird, the teams ended with the best season track head coach Eric Houle said he has seen in the 108 Conference Championships he has coached in his coaching career at SUU.
“Being in the top three is absolutely awesome compared to years passed,” Houle said.
He said he felt “very good” about conference results and said he feels because of how well the indoor season ended it will help the team in outdoor season.
“We peak on outdoor season,” Houle said. “It should be a very competitive season with lots of good performances.”
Transitioning into outdoor season, Houle said the teams have a bit of a break after all the pressure of conference championships.
“They will get a bit of a break to relax and prepare for what will come this season,” he said.
Women's Results:
The women’s team came home in third place, missing the championship title by 70.5 points, which was captured by North Dakota State with a score of 198.5 points while Oral Roberts captured second with a score of 131.
Senior Sharla Manuele captured first place in the 3,000-meter and in the mile with a times of 9 minutes and 54.36 seconds and 4 minutes and 49.28 seconds. She also took second place in the 800-meter with a time of 2 minutes 14.87 seconds.
“I wanted faster time in the mile,” Manuele said. “But it was a hard trek running it on a 200-meter track.”
Manuele said she put much of her energy into the mile that her 800-meter race suffered, but she said she was still happy with how she did.
She said although performances by for others didn’t go as hoped she felt the team did good overall.
“We were only 60 some points off first place,” Manuele said. “The team is getting stronger and this is a tough conference; and we’re not really an indoor team so this will give us a good head start for the outdoor season.”
Finishing behind Manuele in the 3,000-meter with a time of 10 minutes and .93 seconds was junior Diana Medina, who also claimed the 5,000-meter title with a time of 17 minutes 25.58 seconds.
The women’s team claimed 20 points for its third place championship title in the 5,000-meter with Medina’s first place finish, junior Sylvia Bedford in fourth place and sophomores Madalyn Oplin and Kirsten Sly in sixth and seventh places, respectively.
Medina said she felt her season ended well with a personal record in the 5,000 and 3,000-meters.
Another individual title that added to the team score was junior Christina Day’s 56.37-second time in the 400-meter.
Throwers Whitney Singleton, Ashley Morrison and Adrianne Hill captured fifth, sixth and seventh places in the shot put with throws of 43 feet for both Singleton and Morrison and 42 feet for Hill.
Men's Results:
SUU captured third behind both NDSU, who took first place with a score of 171.5 points, and Oral Roberts, who took second with a 113-point score.
Junior Cam Levins led the team with first-place finishes in the 3,000-meter and the mile with times of 8 minutes 31.25 seconds and 4 minutes 20.99 seconds.
Levins said he was happy with his performance.
He said although the team was unable to beat NDSU, a team which has always been competitive, but the third place finish was great for the team.
Other performances which added to the team score were seniors Forrest Ledbetter and Carlos Valle second and third place finishes in the shot put with throws of 51 feet, 2.25 inches and 51, feet .75 inches.
Sophomore Kodai Kusano finished fourth in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.15 seconds while sophomore Wade Nielson and junior Brent Springall finished third and fourth with 4793 and 4595 points in the heptathlon. Nielson also took second in the men’s high jump, at 6 feet 8.25 inches.
While the majority of the team will travel to University of Las Vegas this weekend to begin the outdoor season, Manuele and Levins, who both have provisional standards, will head to University of Washington this weekend for the chance to make nationals.
Levins currently sits 17th in the mile, while Manuele sits 44th in the mile and 34th in the 3,000-meter. Manuele plans to compete in both the mile and 3,000-meter.
“(Houle) might pull me out of it if the heat in the mile is not fast enough,” she said.
Be the first to comment on this article!