The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Two MIAC champs lead womenƒ?TMs track to 5th place

By Nate Oglesbee

[img_assistfid=232thumb=1alt=Kaela Schramm]
There are some debates that will probably rage forever without answer: The chicken or the egg? Paper or plastic? Britney or Christina?

Last Friday and Saturday, however, the womenƒ?TMs track team brought humanity a step closer to solving one more of these enigmas: Quality, or quantity?

Despite a relatively small squad, especially in non-distance events, the women came back from the MIAC Championships with their best showing in years. The Scots ended up in fifth place overall with 77 points, the most the team has scored since 1997.

Helping solve the age-old question, were a few athletes who provided the vast majority of those points. Four women were involved in 75 of Macƒ?TMs 77 points.

Leading the way were Kaela Schramm ƒ?TM07 and Emily Stafford ƒ?TM06, who became Macƒ?TMs first indoor conference champions since the 2000 season.

Schramm took top honors in the triple jump, earning a provisional mark for the NCAA championship. She also placed 3rd in the 55m hurdles, and sixth in the 55m dash.

Schramm was disappointed with her performances on Friday, but rebounded on Saturday to take the triple jump title, and was positive about the teamƒ?TMs overall showing.

ƒ?oeI think, for the women, it went amazingly well,ƒ?? Schramm said. ƒ?oeI feel like this conference, especially on the womenƒ?TMs side, was focused on getting points wherever we could, because we know we have a small teamƒ?ÝIt was strategic, the events that we did, it was very strategic.ƒ??

As part of that strategy, Stafford, who normally does longer distances, ran the 600m. Running in the second (slower) heat, Stafford ƒ?oewent out and led the whole way and ended up winning by a second,ƒ?? she said. Her finish was also good enough to give her second place overall, beating out better-ranked competition from the third heat.

ƒ?oeItƒ?TMs not very often someone finishes second overall coming from the second heat,ƒ?? distance coach Jordan Cushing said of the 600m race. ƒ?oeFor Stafford to have done that, and then come back and anchor the DMRƒ?Ýwas outstanding.ƒ??

Stafford took the conference crown in the 800m run in dramatic fashion, falling behind early to a St. Maryƒ?TMs runner, before catching her on the third lap, and finishing with a strong burst as a Concordia runner sought to catch her.

The DMR (distance medley relay), which features a 1200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m run, also got second place, with the help of Stafford, Anna Shamey ƒ?TM07, Jen Noelke ƒ?TM07, and another star of the weekend, Koby Hagen ƒ?TM06. The squad also broke the school record in the event, the second time this year, and third time in the past two seasons.

In addition to her DMR run, Hagen took second in the 3000m and third in the mile.

ƒ?oeThe 3k was the party raceƒ?”just trying to get points for the team,ƒ?? Hagen said. ƒ?oeCoach Jordan told me ƒ?there are no limits,ƒ?TM so I came into it with a lot of confidence and just had fun.ƒ??

The final component of Macƒ?TMs ƒ?quality over quantityƒ?TM weekend was Susan Brown ƒ?TM07, who took third in the triple jump, fourth in the long jump, and fifth in the high jump to add 15 points to Macƒ?TMs total.

Allie Woerpel ƒ?TM07 rounded out Macƒ?TMs scoring, taking seventh in the 1000m with a season PR.

Thanks largely to Stafford, Hagen, Schramm, and Brown the Mac women scored 36 more points than last year, and moved up three spots. Echoing this improvement, Cushing was proud of her distance squad all around, not just the scorers.

ƒ?oeA year ago, Koby and Staffordƒ?”neither of them placed individually at conference. I was thrilled. They ran really well,ƒ?? Cushing said. ƒ?oeAcross the board, everyone ran really well.

St. Thomas took the overall team title for the 19th time in the indoor conference meetƒ?TMs 22-year history. For the time being though, it appears a small, but quality force can overcome at least some of its larger foes.

ƒ?oeI mean, obviously with seven or eight people we couldnƒ?TMt have won conference,ƒ?? Schramm said. ƒ?oeThereƒ?TMs just not enough of us. But it shows how talented the people on the team are. So I think we did really well.ƒ??

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