WHEATON, Ill. – The Bethel University women's track and field team traveled to Wheaton College for the Don Church Twilight meet over the weekend and continued to improve on their marks for the 2015 outdoor season.  With just two meets remaining before the conference championships, Saturday's competition was a critical building block for the team.
 
"This has always been a great trip for us.  We get to spend so much time together as a team and I feel that really does help us grow closer as a group," said head coach Andrew Rock.

While the Royals enjoyed many strong performances on the day, freshman Annika Halverson led the way by winning the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:43.27 and ascending to 12^th place in the nation.  Senior captain Rebecca Wesley took third in the event while teammate Melody Walton also won the steeplechase with a time of 11:45.97. 
 
In addition, Bethel performed well in the sprints and field events and were led by sophomore Jillian Krier who placed in the top-ten of both the 100 and 200-meter dash.  Teammate Miriam Nordquist tied her time in the 100-meter dash with a mark of 12.80 seconds while freshman Erin Alpers took third-place in the 400-meter dash and team captain Paige Thielen also took third in the 400-meter hurdles. 

In the field events, sophomore Katie Dillie capture top-ten finishes in both the long and high jumps, while Amanda Passaglia took seventh-place in the hammer throw with a distance of 39.92 meters.  The Royals finished the day with a solid performance in the 1600-meter relay, coming across in a time of 4:07.83.

The team will now look ahead to a pair of competitions this week, starting with the highly-anticipated Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa followed by the Janis Rider Invite at Macalester College on Saturday.