Track and Field see success in return

Lauren Lott, Sports Reporter

The Winona State Women’s Track and Field team excelled in two days of consecutive meets, in spite of recent weather.

The unit added ten first-place finishes to their record in back-to-back track meets last week.

The first meet they competed in was the Maverick Spring Winter Invite in Mankato, Minnesota on Wednesday April 11. Although this meet was added last minute due to cancellations from the weather, the team came out strong with four first-place finishes.

“I’m feeling good about this season, we just need some better weather conditions,” senior

Amanda Schaefer said. “A lot of people have been doing well given the circumstances we have had.”

With the weather warming up for the meet in Mankato the team was glad to be able to compete.

“With the meet last week I was glad we were able to get some fairly decent weather, and I think the team performed great,” senior Tamika Tucker said.

Sophomore Taylor Juresh competed in the 100m, senior Erin Bramble threw the hammer, sophomore Ashley Sprain in the long jump, and first-year Kristi Springer in the triple jump, each placed first in their events.

Sophomore Amanda Wanie placed second in the 400m hurdles, and Junior Kari Schneiss

finished in third-place in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.2 seconds. Senior Olivia Fixsen (15.24 seconds), Sprain (15.89 seconds), Wanie (15.9 seconds) and senior Rebecca Sultany (16.39 seconds) followed Schneiss in the hurdles event in that order.

The second meet that the track and field team competed in was the Spring, Sprang, Sprung meet at Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota on Thursday, where six Warriors walked away with first-place finishes in their events.

The Warriors’ distance runners obtained half of the first-place finishes on Thursday.

Sophomore Anna Roghn was the first of three runners to cross the finish line in the 1500m run, sophomore Nikki Staffen and senior McKenzie Carper followed close behind to claim the top three spots in the event.

Senior Hannah Lewis set a new personal best in the 5000m run. Her time of 18:24.05 earned her the eighth all-time in Winona State’s record book and put her in first place at the Saint Mary’s meet.

Senior Raissa Hansen placed first in the 3000m steeplechase by 40 seconds, with a time of 11:15.23.

First-year Kalley Harris continues her rookie season with another first-place win in the 400m hurdles.

Her time of 1:03.63 is now the fourth all-time in Winona State history. Schneiss, who holds the third-best time in program history, finished second in the race with a time of 1:04.27.

Tucker earned another first-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 5.76m. She has won the long jump in three straight meets that she competed in the event, going back to the NSIC Indoor Championships where she was named conference champion.

Tucker has been named Outdoor All-Conference two years in a row in 2016 and 2017.

“Personally, I think I’ve been competing well considering the weather and I’ve continued to better my performance as time went on, so I’m excited about that,” Tucker said.

Through this spring season, Winona State has obtained 18 total first-place finishes across three meets.

“We have a meet coming up Friday in La Crosse that we aren’t sure about due to weather,” Tucker said. “But we are hoping that we will be able to compete.”

The team will see again on April 20, where they will compete in the Esten Challenge in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The competition will begin at 2 p.m.