St. Paul – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s outdoor track and field team concluded the 2015 MIAC Championships in seventh place with 57 points on Saturday at the Macalester Track and Field Complex. St. Thomas won the MIAC title with 148 points, Concordia finished second with 129.5 points, and St. Olaf rounded out the top three in third with 107.5 points.
The final day of the season-ending meet was highlighted by the hammer throw effort of senior Elizabeth Weiers (Sr., Le Center, Minn.). Weiers successfully defended her 2014 title with a second straight MIAC Championship after recording a toss of 168-feet 9-inches. To go along with a second place finish her sophomore season in 2013, Weiers becomes the program’s first three-time All-Conference performer in the hammer throw since Kirsten Olinger and Jen Mull did so in the mid-1990s. She is also the first two-time winner of the event since Mull in 1995 and 1997 and Olinger in 1994 and 1996.
Liz Weiers successfully defended her title in the hammer throw with a second straight gold medal performance.
The Gusties did much of their damage in the throws as Sarah Swanson (Jr., Fairbanks, Alaska) and Kaylee Maxon (Sr., New Richmond, Minn.) also scored in the hammer and discus. Swanson finished fourth in both the hammer with a throw of 154-feet 8-inches and discus with a throw of 128-feet 2-inches. Maxon rounded out the throws by taking sixth in the hammer with a toss of 150-feet 2-inches.
Haley Kemper (Sr., Prior Lake, Minn.) and Kelsey Harms (Jr., Apple Valley, Minn.) rounded out the team’s top performances in the field events. Kemper finished fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 35-feet 10-inches, and Harms paced fifth in the pole vault after going over the bar at 10-feet 6-inches.
Caitlin Fermoyle (Sr., Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Marit Sonnesyn (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) provided the top finishes on the track. Following her runner-up, All-Conference run in yesterday’s 10,000-meter, Fermoyle concluded her Gustavus career with a fifth place showing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:29.81. Marit Sonnesyn added her second top eight finish of the weekend by taking fifth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:20.74.
FROM THE MIAC
There was a short awards ceremony following the conclusion of the meet to honor both team champions. The top three individuals in each event and the first-place relay team will automatically earn All-Conference honors, and the 4th-through-6th place finishers in each open event and 2nd-through-6th place relay teams will all be named All-Conference Honorable Mention. The rest of the 2015 MIAC Men’s Outdoor Track and Field awards will be voted on by the coaches and announced later this week.
Fans can re-live the 2015 MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on the meet’s home page, which includes complete results, recaps and more from an outstanding weekend of track and field. Fans can connect to the conference on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube using the hashtag #MIACOTF. The MIAC would like to thank Macalester College and their coaches and staff for their efforts to host the event.