Elsah, IL. Principia College hosted the SLIAC Indoor track and field championships on February 27.
A Look at the Meet- Six schools in the SLIAC participated in the championships. The running events featured men going first today, and Principia's men finished with 53 points for fourth place finishing ahead of Westminster and Fontbonne. With 89 points, Principia's women finished second overall to Greenville, and finished ahead of Fontbonne, Webster, Iowa Wesleyan, and Westminster. For both Principia's men and women, the day was filled with 20 PR's (including some first-time performances) out of 37 events completed by Principia's!
Men's Highlights/Personal Bests- The long jump featured four Principia's.
Cooper Holt jumped for the first time in college and finished with a 5.88 meter (19' 3.5") jump narrowly missing All-Conference honors by one centimeter. Cooper would also later set a PR in the 200 in 26.08 seconds.
Isaac Ansumana improved on his long jump PR by 35 centimeters with a leap of 5.31 meters (17' 5.25"). Isaac would later tie his PR in the 60 meter dash with a time of 8.01 seconds.
Wisdom Thomas won the long jump (by more than two feet!) with a season best leap of 6.78 meters (22' 3"). Wisdom then finished second in the triple jump with a 13.17 (43' 2.5") jump. These jumps combined with his other performances this season earned Wisdom the SLIAC Field Event Athlete of the Year! In the weight throw,
Matthew Hagenlocher improved his PR by 2.12 meters to finish with 11.56 meters (37' 11.25").
Stan Ott also made incredible progress heaving the weight 14.11 meters (46' 3.5") which was a 2.54 meter (8' 4") improvement from his previous PR. Stan's throw was good for second place. In the 60 meter dash,
Jordan Bond ran a new PR with 8.0 seconds.
Griff Carlson set a PR in the 60 in 8.11 seconds.
Mitchell Gill improved by .01 seconds in the 60 to finish in 7.29 seconds which moved into a tie for fifth place on Principia's best all-time list. Mitchell also ran 23.37 in the 200 to improve by .13 seconds and move into third place on Principia's best all-time list. Gabe Theodoro also ran a PR in the 200 with a 25.08.
Quinn Heinbaugh won the 800 meter run with a time of 1:57.77, which improved upon his best PR by 2.57 seconds which is a new Crafton Center record!
All Conference
Dean Colarossi: 4x400 meter relay 3
rd place
Mitchell Gill: 4x400 meter relay 3
rd place
Cooper Holt: 4x400 meter relay 3
rd place
Quinn Heinbaugh: 800 meter run 1
st place; 4x400 meter relay 3
rd place
Stan Ott: weight throw 2
nd place
Wisdom Thomas: long jump 1
st place; triple jump 2
nd place;
SLIAC Field Event Athlete of the Year
Women's Highlights/Personal Bests-
Beka Petersen began the day by competing in the long jump for the first time in her life. She finished with a second place 4.5 meter (14' 9.25") jump. This was good enough for fifth all time for Principia. Beka set two other PR's also by running 8.91 in the 60 and 30.16 in the 200.
Abby Holt placed third in the long jump, then won the pole vault by over a foot with a vault of 2.63 meters (8' 7.5"). She then went immediately over to the high jump and won that event also with a season best leap of 1.55 meters (5' 1"). In the mood to conquer more, Abby won the 400 meter dash with a PR of 1:05.65 and topped her day off with another PR in the 200 dash with a time of 28.94. Abby scored 36 points in the meet, which was better than two entire teams!
Emme Schaefer and teammate
Afton Leslie went 1 and 2 in the mile. Emme finished with another PR in the mile with a time of 5:35.
Geena Richards stormed to a new PR and third place in the 800 in a time of 2:39.9, while just .13 seconds back
Laura Mayo ran a new PR of 2.40.03. The women closed out the race with an absolutely exciting 4x400 meter relay.
Laura Mayo and
Tara Adhikari ran strong for legs one and two and kept the team in good striking position.
Emme Schaefer got the baton and ran about two seconds faster than she'd ever run 400 meters before to give the women the lead.
Geena Richards anchored, and with 150 meters to go a Greenville runner came up behind and attempted to pass when Geena found another gear and fought to the end for a winning time of 4:40.52 which turned out to be good enough for the fourth best time ever for a Principia women's indoor team.
All Conference
Tara Adhikari: 4x400 meter relay 1
st place
Abby Holt: pole vault 1
st place; high jump 1
st place; 400 meter dash 1
st place; long jump 3
rd place
Afton Leslie: mile run 2
nd place
Laura Mayo: 4x400 meter relay 1
st place
Beka Petersen: long jump 2
nd place
Geena Richards: 800 meter run 3
rd place, 4x400 meter relay 1
st place
Emme Schaefer: mile run 1
st place; 4x400 meter relay 1
st place
Individual results including all field event trials and lap splits can be found at the following link. Looking at each lap split from all athletes can help you see how races unfolded.
https://liveresults.trxctiming.com/meets/SLIAC_Indoor_Championships_2021/1
Up Next- Outdoor Season! As of now the first outdoor track meet will be April 2 at McKendree University. However, the women's distance team will run at the SLIAC cross country championships on March 27 in Litchfield, IL. Thank you to everyone that followed the races this season and to those that tuned into the live online broadcast today.
