Winona State University’s women’s track and field had the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Indoor Track and Field championships on Saturday at Mankato State University.
This meet ends an interesting season on a strong note.
We usually have at least six meets before the conference meet,” third-year student athlete Madison Rizner said. “This year we had three.”
Saving half as many meets would usually slow a team down, but not for these girls. They had an extraordinary season with many school records and podium sports placed.
Among this season’s notable mentions include Rizner, third-year Michaela Pryor, third-year Brooklyn Schyvinck, Kalley Harris, Kendall Zeman and Maddy Pietz.
Rizner tied the school’s high jump record in Mankato on Jan 30. She competed in both high jump and triple jump on Saturday.
She placed fourth in triple jump with 11.49 meters and fifth in high jump with 1.64 meters.
“I need to surpass the school record in order to have a shot at nationals this year,” Rizner said. “Jumping 1.69 would give me the best chance at nationals.”
While Rizner fell just short of her goal, she has had a successful season and hopes to do even better next year.
“I want to strive to become an All-American,” Rizner said. “I want to consistently make the podium at conference meets and improve placements in the Winona State record book.”
With one season left in her collegiate career, she is not far from her goal after a successful season.
Rizner managed to place on the podium (top three) in all events during the regular season meets, except one where she placed fourth, only .03m behind Winona State athlete, second-year Ashlie Lockington.
Winona State women’s track and field had a very successful Saturday meet as they placed fourth overall.
Pryor set a new Winona State record in both the 200m and 60m dash with times of 24.71 seconds in the 200m and 7.62 seconds in the 60m. She is now ranked fifth in the entire Division two conference in the 200m dash.
Schyvinck had a very successful weekend as well, placing first in the 400m dash with a time of 57.02 seconds and her 4x400m relay team placing first at 3:51 minutes.
Also on the relay team alongside Schyvinck is Harris, Zeman and Pietz.
The first-place win places them as an All-Conference team.
Also on the All-Conference team are Pryor (200m) and Schyvinck (400m).
Mason Rebarchek is the head track and field coach as well as the director of cross country.
“It’s a big deal to win an event at this championship,” Coach Rebarchek said.
The 4×400 team adds to the other twelve relay conference champions that he has already coached.
Having a successful season such as this one during a challenging time, these girls should be more than proud of themselves to have accomplished all that they have.
The NCAA National Championships will be in Birmingham, Alabama on March 11-13.
The student athletes competing will be announced on the evening of March 2.