Foley Leads Track at Conference Indoor Meet
Sterling, Ill. – Coming off of running a personal record performance in the indoor 5000 Meter run last week Bea Foley (Sr. – Greenville, Wis.) expected to run well at this Saturday's Midwest Collegiate Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship.
Foley not only ran well, she exceeded expectations as she lowered two of her own Viterbo records and bettered the NAIA "A" qualifying standard in two events. In the 5000 Meter run Foley and defending NAIA Indoor 5000 meter champion Obsie Birru lapped the field as Foley went on to a second place finish in 18:19.01, bettering the championship qualifying standard by almost 6 seconds. In the 3000 meter run, a fast pace set by both Foley and Grand View's Birru led both athletes to break the previous conference championship record time. Birru finished first in 10:18.55. Foley's time of 10:25.87 was an 18 second improvement over her previous school record and bettered the previous conference meet record by 10 seconds. Foley will now have an opportunity to race defending national champion Obsie Birru at the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Geneva, Ohio.
Foley was not the only V-Hawk with a strong performance on Saturday. In the women's mile Kriston Siemianowski (Sr. – Bangor – Wis.) finished third overall in the women's mile in 5:25.95. The women's 4X800 meter relay team of Siemianowski, Amanda McCarthy (So. – Eleva, Wis.), Cassidy Mayberry (Fr. – Hillsboro, Wis.), and Cindy Leuck (Sr. – Cashton, Wis.) also finished third overall in 10:24.64.
Other scorers for the V-Hawks included the men's distance medley relay team of Patrick Understeller (Jr. - Mountain View, Hawaii.) David Hale (Fr. – Pearland, Texas.), Josh Petersen (So. – Eau Claire, Wis.) and Evan Rains (Fr. – Kootenai, Idaho). The women's distance medley team of McCarthy, Mayberry, Rebecca Wollersheim (Fr. – Oshkosh, Wis.), and Danielle Stark (Jr. – Prairie du Chien, Wis.), The men's 4X800 meter relay of Petersen, Understeller, Rains, and Jacob Butler (Fr. – Trimble, Tenn.), the men's 4X400 meter relay team of Hale, Josh Niebuhr (Fr. – West Salem, Wis.), Quinton Peters (Fr. – Onalaska, Wis.), and Brock Mrdjenovich (Fr. – Ashland, Wis.), the women's 4X400 meter relay team of Siemianowski, Leuck, Wollersheim, and Anastasia Jensen (Anoka, Minn.) in the women's mile and 800 meter runs, and Kaitlyn Kanis (Fr. – Viroqua, Wis.) in the women's high jump event.
The V-Hawk's men's team finished eighth overall in their first conference championship. The women's team finished sixth overall in front of conference rivals, William Penn University and Iowa Wesleyan College. The Vikings from Grand View University won both the men's and women's team competitions.