The Winona State University track and field team competed at the Ted Nelson Classic last Saturday in Mankato, Minnesota. The Ted Nelson Classic marks the fourth straight week of competition in the indoor season.

The top finish of the day was sophomore Kristi Springer’s second-place finish in the triple jump while a pair of Warriors set new personal bests in the weight throw. Springer came about as close as anyone could to a first-place finish, jumping for a distance of 11.73 m and only a quarter inch away from the winner.

Senior Tamika Tucker took fourth-place in the long jump with a distance of 5.42m, while junior teammate Taylor Juresh finished 12th in the event with a new season-long distance of 5.02m.

Junior Kacey Davitt threw for a new season-best of 14.4m in the weight throw, while her first-year teammate Katrina Thoe also set a new top mark of 11.56m.

Davitt and the Warriors have made the trip to Mankato State University three times so far this season, the Ted Nelson Classic being the second of back-to-back trips there. The Warriors are scheduled to visit Myers Fieldhouse in Mankato two more times this season.

“Mankato has one of the nicest facilities in our conference and is one of the closer ones, making it easier to travel to. It can get a little tiring going to Mankato as much as we do, but I do enjoy competing there,” Davitt said. “I like traveling there because it isn’t too terrible of a drive to get there and it is also nice competing there because it is so familiar. When we compete there, we can get right down to business. We don’t have to worry about where check-in is going to be, where the starting line is or where we are going to warm-up because we’ve competed there so much.”

On the track, Maria Sabourin ran in the 1000m and finished with a time of 3:25.29 to finish 16th. Sophomore Katie Lorenz finished 31st in the 3000m run with a time of 11:34.15. Ashley Sprain ran a season-best 9.50 seconds in the 60m hurdle preliminaries.

With only two more competitions until the NSIC indoor championships, sophomore hurdler Kalley Harris talked about her teammates and how the team keeps each other motivated.

“My teammates are some of the most positive, hardworking and kind-hearted women I know,” Harris said. “In order to be motivated to do something as rigorous as a college sport, you have to truly want to be there and have a love for the ups and downs that come with it. We all hold each other accountable by being positive in practice during long workouts and constantly remind each other that working hard now will pay off during competition and overall make us stronger athletes.”

The Warriors will be back in action this weekend at the Bearcat Invitational hosted by Northwest Missouri State.