Results

GRINNELL, Iowa – The Bethel University women's track and field team completed their first out-of-state meet at Grinnell College on Saturday, as they battled tough competition at the Darren Young Classic. While facing a few unfamiliar faces, the Royals continued to improve their individual and team marks.

"We had a really solid day with several huge personal bests and I thought we did well overall," commented head coach Andrew Rock.

The Royals performed particularly well in the middle-distance events on Saturday with Natalie Kessler and Halle Marr making major improvements in the 1-mile run and teammate Annika Halverson climbing to tenth place in the nation with her runner-up finish in the event.

Meanwhile, it was Rebecca Wesley and Erin Alpers that took second and third in the women's 800-meter run featuring 37 other competitors. Also competing well in the distance events was Melody Walton, who took first place in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:13.86.

In addition, sophomore Jillian Krier captured a third-place finish with a time of 8.05 seconds in the 60-meter dash while teammate Miriam Nordquist also had a big day in the 60-meter hurdles.

Moving along to the field events, the Royals took three of the top six spots in the pole vault with Jillian Krier, KelliAnne O'Leary and Angela Substad.  Team captain Alyssa Solberg also finished second in the women's weight throw event with a distance of 16.05 meters, which ranks No. 25 nationwide.  Bethel also finished the meet with a fourth-place finish in the highly contested 1600-meter relay.

The women's team will now look ahead to next Saturday's meet at the University of Minnesota with just two competitions remaining before the conference championships.