The Gustavus Adolphus women’s track and field team placed ninth at the 2007 MIAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, which concluded Saturday at St. Olaf’s Tostrud Center in Northfield. Gustavus finished with 46.5 points. Janna Castellano emerged as Gustavus’ lone champion on the weekend, winning the pole vault. St. Thomas claimed its 20th MIAC Indoor title with 142 points.
Gustavus entered the final day of competition in eighth place with 24.5 points, getting 23.5 from the pole vault. Saturday saw much of the same as the Gusties got another 14 points out of field events.
The Gusties picked up eight points in the triple jump as Sari Lindeman (Jr., Cannon Falls, Minn.) took fourth (35-10 1/2), Laura Lynch (So., Waunakee, Wis.) placed seventh (34-5) and Becca Bryson (Fy., Alden, Minn./Alden-Conger) captured eighth (34-4).
Gustavus also had multiple placewinners in the shot put where Kaelene Lundstrum (Fy., Bird Island, Minn./BOLD) placed fifth (39-11 1/2) and Lisa Brown (So., Lake Crystal, Minn./Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial) took eighth (38-5 1/2).
Saturday’s relays produced eight points for the Gusties, with the 4×200 team of Kelsey Becker (Sr., Lakeville, Minn.), Lindeman, Linda Kanne (So., Franklin, Minn./Cedar Mountain), and Funto Okanla (Jr., St. Paul, Minn./Arlington) placing third (1:49.04) and the 4×400 relay of Carlie Hanson (Sr., Buffalo, Minn.), Elizabeth Pringle (So., Northfield, Minn.), Sam Madsen (So., Morgan, Minn./Cedar Mountain), and Krista Cruse (Sr., Hastings, Minn.) placing seventh (4:14.32).
Lindsey TeBrake (So., Shakopee, Minn.) grabbed the final Gustavus point of the day with an eighth-place finish in the high jump (4-11 1/2).
Elsewhere on the track, Kanne finished 10th in the 200 (27.85), Hanson took 11th in the 600 (1:45.10), Madsen placed 13th in the 1000 (3:12.42), and Jill Fagerstrom (So., Rosemount, Minn.) was 16th in the 3000 (11:04.05).
Castellano’s championship effort of 12-2 in the pole vault is fifth in Division III and automatically places her in the field for the next weekend’s (March 9-10) NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. Shanna Dawson (pole vault) is the only other Gustavus women to record a NCAA provisional qualifying mark this winter, but ranks 32nd, well outside the field for this year’s championships. Official selections will be released at approximately noon Central Time Monday, March 5.