March 2, 2008...5:11 pm
Coyote women win final NCC Indoor meet; men finish second
It’s fitting that the team that has dominated the North Central Conference Indoor Track and Field championship meet won the final meet.
The USD women’s track and field team, who have won three of the last four indoor crowns, totaled 192 points to earn the eighth indoor title in school history.
The Coyote women finished fourth at last year’s meet, but outscored MSU-Mankato, who finished with 162 points, after the USD women won five individual titles and two relay titles.
“We had a phenomenal afternoon. It was a great team effort led by Stephanie Gebhart, Ramsey Kavan and Emma Erickson. We were proud of everybody on this team,” said USD head women’s track and field coach Lucky Huber, who helped lead the Coyote women to their seventh indoor title in 14 years at USD.
Sophomore Ramsey Kavan won three individual at the two-day meet. Kavan won the 3,000-meter run, the 1-mile run and the 1,000-meter run.
Sophomore Emma Erickson won two individual events including the 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.78, which is an automatic qualifying time for nationals and nearly broke the NCC record held by USD grad Kassy Laber 2:12.57.
In the 500-meter run, Erickson won the event while teammate Rosalie Brueske finished second.
Senior Stephanie Gebhart finished second in the 400-meter dash and was just shy of an automatic qualifying time for nationals at 56.60. The automatic standard is 56.20.
Junior Allie Smith finished seventh in the 400-meter dash.
Senior Lindsay House finished second in the 60-meter hurdles while Haley Juhnke finished sixth in the same event.
Shaneka Parkes was third in the 60-meter dash while teammates Jenessa Filler and Lauren Krell finished sixth and seventh. Parkes was also fourth in the 200-meter dash while Filler was sixth in the same event.
The USD women sccored major points in the triple jump as Tia Haines was second, Natalie Stout scored fourth and Betsy Lubber finished fifth.
Andrene Miller finished third in the long jump.
Allison Duba finished fourth in the 1,000-meter run.
Kelsey Maloney was fourth in the 5,000-meter run and was also third in the 3,000-meter run.
Shara Thompson was seventh in the women’s shot put.
Katie Cerling finished eighth in the pole vault.
The USD women also won the 4×400-meter relay and the distance medley relay.
The Coyote women did an outstanding job of bouncing back from last year’s fourth place finish. Erickson and Kavan scored 50 points between the two of them. Considering the margin of victory was 30 points. Look for those two to finish high at nationals coming up March 14-15.
Meanwhile, the USD men finished second to MSU-Mankato after the Mavericks scored 284 points while the Coyotes had 148 points.
Freshman Jason Sebern won the triple jump while also finishing second in the high jump.
Senior hurdler Terry Liggins became the first athlete in NCC history to win the 60-meter hurdles four straight years. Liggins also finished sixth in the 200-meter dash and was eighth in the 60-meter dash.
Scott Hargens finished second in the 400-meter dash while Tyler Wetering was second in the 1,000-meter run. Rob Gregiore was fifth in the same event.
Junior sprinter was third in the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.
Senior Josh Jeffery was third in the 1-mile run and also finished fourth in the 800-meter dash.
Ben Walters finished fourth in the shot put.
Tyler Williamson was fifth in the 500-meter dash.
Matt Yaggie finished fifth in the 5,000-meter run.
Junior sprinter Ben Oberle was eighth in the 400-meter dash.
The USD distance medley relay team finished second while the 4×400-meter relay team was fifth.
From looking through the event finishing list, it was too much MSU-Mankato and their depth. In many situations, the Mavericks had two or three finishers compared to the one or two that the Coyotes had. That allowed the Mavericks to morph the Coyotes in the standings.
“I am really proud of our athletes, who had a lot of adversity this weekend. Given those factors, I feel good about their performance. They battled all weekend,” said USD men’s track and field head coach Dave Gottsleben.
Given what Gottsleben said, the fact that the Coyotes dealt with illness and injury, they gave a solid effort while dealing with those issues.
- - Vance Janak
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