FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Results
DELAWARE, Ohio (May 28, 2011) - The North Central College women's track and field team finished off a strong showing at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships on Saturday, scoring in three events and tying for seventh place in a 83-team field at Ohio Wesleyan University's Selby Stadium.
Entering the day with six total points, the Cardinals piled on 16 additional points on Saturday, 11 of which came in the final two events, to match Illinois College for seventh place with 22. The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh won the team title with 80 points, 21 more than runner-up Wartburg College (Iowa).
North Central's first points of the day came from Sheila Walsh in the 400-meter dash finals. Walsh had posted a personal-best time of 55.52 seconds on Friday to post the second-fastest qualifying time for the final, and nearly duplicated that showing on Saturday. After battling with eventual second-place finisher Marcia McCord of Ithaca College (N.Y.) and third-placer Mary Mahoney of the University of Mount Union (Ohio), Walsh wound up fourth in 56.01 seconds to claim All-America honors and five points for her team.
"I was kind of excited at the beginning, and I really felt strong the whole race," Walsh said. "It was warmer today than it has been, but I think that's more of a mental thing than anything. It was a good race."
After earning All-America status in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday, North Central's Amanda Laesch returned to the track for the 5,000 meters on Saturday. Laesch gradually worked her way toward the front of the pack and joined the leaders heading into the final lap, making a bid for the win before eventually finishing third in 17:08.24 to climb the steps on the award stand for the second time.
"I felt pretty good," Laesch said of her second race of the weekend. "I took care of myself on the day in between, so I don't think (running both events) affected me as much as it could have. I thought about trying to take the lead, but I was getting kind of tired by that point and thought maybe I could rely on my kick."
Walsh ventured back onto the track with teammates Lauren Brightmore, Krista Cota and Linnea Higgins for the finals of the 4x400-meter relay. The quartet set a school record with a time of 3:46.54 in the preliminaries to qualify for the final, and were able to better their time once again with a 3:46.08 to finish fourth overall.
"We felt a little bit of pressure to perform after running so well in the heats, but we had confidence that we could do it again," Brightmore said. "It's incredible seeing all our hard work being put together and being able to finish so well against some really great teams."
Also competing for the Cardinals on Saturday was Brianna Tolliver, who placed 13th in the javelin throw with a distance of 132 feet, one inch.
The seventh-place finish for North Central was the program's highest at the outdoor championships since placing third at the 1997 championships.
