RESULTS
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - The Royals women's track and field team remained undefeated as they took down the St. Ben's and Augsburg in a triangular meet on Saturday, February 20th. Bethel scored 96.5 team points to the Bennies' 69.5 while the Auggies tallied 8 points.
"We had another great meet today with some really strong performances," said Head Coach Andrew Rock. "I like the way we continue to challenge ourselves to get better. I saw a lot of our athletes putting it all out there for our team."
The strongest performance of the meet came in the last event of the day, the 4x400m relay. Hannah Sankey, Kelsie Sealock, Britta Nordberg, and Mikayla Turek won the event in a time of 3:55.38 - the top time in Division III by over 3 seconds. Sankey led after the first turn and the Royals never looked back. She split 58.72 coming out of the blocks and handed off to Sealock who ran 58.50. Nordberg broke the one-minute barrier by running 59.72 and Turek closed the final leg in 58.14.
Here is how the events of the day broke down:
SPRINTS
In the fastest race of the day, Grace Scott proved to be the fastest of the field. In the 60m dash, Scott ran away with victory in 8.04 seconds, a personal best and the 10th best time in program history.
Hannah Sankey (26.21) and Mikayla Turek (27.16) went 1-2 in the 200m. Sankey got out of the blocks hard on her way to an indoor personal best of 26.21, which stands as the 9th best time in Division III.
In the long sprint, the 600m, Annessa Ihde asserted herself to the front of the pack and won the race in 1:39.48, the 9th best time in program history. Emily Brockberg took 2nd in a season best 1:42.98.
Kelsie Sealock, the national leader in the 60m hurdles, won that race convincingly in 9.17 seconds. Teammate AnnaGrace Nelson earned 2nd place with her time of 9.72.
In the 4x200m relay, Jireh Babalola, Grace Scott, Sadie Koelz, and Lauren Richards won an exciting showdown by just 0.10. Richards held off the Bennies and brought the baton around in 1:50.28.
DISTANCE
Erika Swanson led the way for the distance crew this week. Swanson ran an indoor personal best of 19:09.89 in the 5000m. Senior captain Anna Hage finished 2nd in the 25-lap race with a time of 19:20.92.
Grace Cole was the top Bethel finisher in the women's mile. Her time of 5:34.50 placed her 2nd overall.
Freshman Raina Moorjani had a nice showing in her first indoor track race running, 11:17.81 in the 3000m run for 3rd place.
FIELD
The Royals took home four first place finishes in the field events on Saturday. AnnaGrace Nelson won the high jump with a leap of 1.53m / 5'0".
Grace Perrenoud earned a victory in the triple jump by jumping 10.64m / 34'11". AnnaGrace Nelson took 2nd place with her jump of 10.49m / 34'5", the 9th best mark in program history.
Jessica Lilland remained undefeated in the pole vault this season. She won the event in a jump off with teammate Sadie Koelz. Lilland cleared 3.15m / 10'3" and Koelz cleared 3.05m / 10'0".
Emma Roethler led the throwers with a win in the shot put. Her heave of 11.44m / 37'6.25". Lauren Wagner and Lexi Ellinghuysen established their names in Bethel's all-time lists in the weight throw. Wagner threw 13.38m / 43'10.75" for 2nd place in the meet and 3rd in program history. Ellinghuysen was just behind with her throw of 13.35m / 43'9.5" for 3rd place and 4th in program history.
UP NEXT
The Royals have one more meet scheduled for their regular season. On Saturday, February 27th, Bethel will host Hamline University for a second time this winter. Follow the Royals' progress on Instagram and Twitter @bethelxctf.
