Women’s Track & Field excel in their first indoor meet

February 1 2018
The Wheaton Thunder Women’s Track and Field team kicked off their 2018 season with impressive performances at Carthage’s “Tadd Metzger Invitational” on Friday, January 27. The Women Thunder took second place out of the nine teams present.
Overall, the UW-Oshkosh team finished first with 143 points with Wheaton close behind scoring 137 points. Carthage racked up 116 points to capture third place and Aurora took fourth place with 98.5 points. Concordia came in fifth with 80.5 points.
The Wheaton Women saw success in the distance, sprint and field events. On the distance side, junior Aryn Embretson started the season off well with a first place victory in the 5,000-meter run, posting a time of 18:24.11. Freshman Hannah Roeske earned first place in the 3,000-meter run, crossing the finish at 10:11.07. Junior Megan Bailey took second in 10:52.53 and sophomore Hannah Oechsle won fourth place in 11:06.85. Freshman Anna Joy Setran finished the one-mile race in 5:37.90 to capture fifth place. Junior Erika Johnson captured first place in the 800-meter run in 2:20.87, just ahead of freshman Brianna Hawthorne who took second place with a time of 2:22.58.
The sprinters also experienced success in their events. Sophomore Favor Ezewuzie won women’s 55-meter dash, finishing in 7.33 seconds. In the prelims of the event, she ran a time of 7.32 seconds which tied Wheaton’s school record in the event, set by Renee Bettinger in 2011. Ezewuzie also ran the 55-meter hurdles in a time of 8.63 seconds to place second. She set a new school record in the event, beating the previous mark by .01 seconds. Junior Abby Grace McGee also competed in the 55-meter hurdles, capturing fifth place at a time of in 8.99 seconds. Sophomore Marissa Heath ran the 200-meter dash in 26.50 seconds, securing a second place finish. Junior Rose Favino finished second in the 400-meter dash in 1:03.54. Wheaton’s 4X400-meter relay team of Heath, Hawthorne, Johnson and senior Nicole Kitchen posted a time of 4:07.84 to finish first in the event.
Junior Katie Lindquist started off her high jump season strong with a first-place jump of 1.64 meters. Fellow junior Anna Ifft took fourth in the triple jump, leaping of 10.22 meters.
The Wheaton Track women feel excited about where they are at this point in the season and are excited to see how they can continue to grow. Favino told us, “I would say that overall we had a strong first meet and established a good foundation to build the rest of the season upon. We’ve all been training hard all fall, so it is nice to finally be able to race and see the pay off.” Hawthorne added, “I think the team as a whole also had a solid start, definitely have a lot of room to grow, though, which is good spot to be in at this point in the season.” Heath echoed, “In regards to my personal performance, I feel that it was a good place to start but there is definitely room to improve throughout the season. The first meet is always a mixture of disappointments and surprises, so as a whole we definitely reflected that. Some people were really excited and even got personal records! Others were not as happy, that’s normally how the first competition goes.” Coach Scott Bradley said, “It was a good start for us! You never really know what to expect at the first meet but overall we are in a good place with our healthy athletes. We do have some key injuries which is tough at this point, but we hope everyone returns soon.”
While everyone’s excited to see future successes this season, many of the Wheaton women told us they’re most excited to experience this track season as a community of athletes. Favino reported, “I’m really excited to see how far we’ll go this year but mostly I’m just so thankful for our coaches, this team and being able to run alongside this wonderful group of people each and every day!” Embretson also said, “As a senior, the thing I get most excited for now is watching the younger members on the team compete and show what they are capable of. This year we have a lot of talented newcomers who will be fun to watch grow in their respective events.” Lindquist added, “I’m excited to strengthen my friendships, make great memories and win conference for the second year in a row!!”
Coach Bradley summed up their goal: “The goal is always the same, and that is to honor God and to worship Him through our participation on this team. If we do that, then the winning and the losing will take care of itself.”
The Wheaton Women’s Track and Field team will continue their pursuit of a second conference title at the University of Chicago’s “Windy City Invitational” on February 2nd- 3rd.