RIPON, Wis. – The Red Hawks hosted a NCAA Final Qualifier for the first time at the Willmore Center Friday-Saturday and used the opportunity to re-write the record books. Two school records were set in addition to 8 new performances on the Top-10 All-time List.
Junior
Emma Spalding has now gone back-to-back weeks setting a new record time in the 200m dash. Following up her record performance at the MWC Championships, she lowered the record by a significant amount on Saturday, dropping from 25.99 to 25.80 seconds. That mark moved her into the top-50 on the NCAA performance list and will qualify her for Academic All-America status.
Fellow junior
Dameco Walker set a school record for the sixth time this indoor season, breaking the Long Jump record twice, Triple Jump, 4x200 Relay and now twice also in the 200m dash. He had set the record three weeks ago at 22.52 seconds and obliterated it this time running 22.37 seconds. His Long Jump school record set earlier in the year of 24'0.25 (7.32m) has him in position to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships next week as the seventh seed overall.
Makaila Weddle and
Jacob Jumbeck had breakout performances in the mid-distance events as they recorded a pair of top-3 performances all-time. Weddle has had an incredible progression over the last year in the Mile, finishing last year with a personal best of 5:41.22 and lowering that every time she raced this season all the way down to 5:14.86 on Saturday. That time ranks as the second fastest in school history behind the 5:11.00 record set by Michelle Matter. Jumbeck has shown similar progression in the 800m, starting the year off running 2:04.27 and dropping that all the way down to 1:58.51 on Saturday, which ranks third in school history.
Senior
Payton Rahn took advantage of her last competition in a Ripon uniform at the Willmore Center recording two personal bests once again in the 400m and 200m. The quarter-mile leader for the Red Hawks this year lowered her PR down to 61.00 seconds, just off of her outdoor best of 60.70 seconds, good for sixth all-time indoors. She moved up to ninth all-time in the 200m as she clocked a time of 26.92 seconds.
A trio of combined event athletes also turned in personal bests establishing new top-10 all-time scores.
Oscar Telschow hit PR's in the Shot Put and High Jump to total a score of 3,522 points which is second all-time.
Bridget Finn and
Caroline Flesch went head-to-head in the Pentathlon and pushed each other to new PR scores of 2,421 and 2,418 points, which rank fourth and fifth all-time.
Following the NCAA Indoor Championships next week Friday-Saturday in North Carolina, the Red Hawks will now prepare for the outdoor season set to kick off April 2 at the Wisconsin Private College Championships.
