Women's Track & Field Opens NACC Championships in Second
MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Friday saw the CUW women's track and field team secure 55.33 points on the opening day of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Outdoor Championships for second place behind the St. Norbert College Knights with 70 points.
Concordia scored 33 points in the distance events, 12 in the throws, and 10.33 in the jumps.
The first record to fall was in the 100-meter hurdles. Junior Maya Hielscher (Macomb, Mich.) qualified for the finals with a time of 15.09 seconds, the best of any competitor on Friday, earning her the number one seed heading into tomorrow's finals. Hielscher's record beats that of Irene Bolis, set in 2019.
Two Falcons earned their spots in the 400-meter hurdles finals as freshman Olivia Ebel (Mt. Clemens, Mich.) earned the fifth seed, while freshman Emma Eilertson (Mukwonago, Wis.) earned the seventh spot, with times of 1:10.17 and 1:12.63, respectively. Once again, the duo's times place them inside the top 10 for CUW women's track and field history.
Hielscher then broke another record with a first-place finish in the javelin, taking the gold with a throw of 40.81 meters, two meters longer than the second-place mark. With her first, Hielscher became the all-time leader in the event, surpassing her previous mark, which was set in last year's NACC Championships.
With her performance, Hielscher earned 10 points for CUW. Senior Jamie Maas (West Bend, Wis.) also earned points in the event, with a mark of 32.10 meters.
Like the indoor championships, sophomore Carly Griesemer earned a spot on the podium for the pole vault. She took first overall with a 3.18-meter clearance, helping the Falcons claim 10 points. Griesemer beat her previous best mark, set last season at the Marquette Invite. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn Pankau (West Bend, Wis.) tied for eighth with a height of 2.58 meters.
CUW's best overall event was the 10,000-meter run, which earned them 17 points. Senior Anessa Yim (Spokane, Wash.) took second overall and eight team points with a 40:20.21, good for ninth all-time.
Meanwhile, freshman Emma Ahrens (Stephens City, Va.) ran 40:52.94 for third. Behind Ahrens was senior Alicia Kawa (Medford, Wis.), who locked up seventh at 42:09.91, while sophomore Abby Poehlman (Hubertus, Wis.) took eighth at 42:16.30.
In the steeplechase, senior Anessa Yim (Spokane, Wash.) defended last year's title and took first overall for the gold medal, recording a time of 11:26.12. Yim's finish earned the Falcons 10 team points.
Furthermore, Yim's mark ranks third all-time as she beat her time of last year by nearly 13 seconds.
Meanwhile, freshman Emma Ahrens (Stephens City, Va.) took the bronze medal, crossing the finish line with a time of 11:43.38 for six team points. Her time now sits fourth in the Concordia women's track and field record book.
Following her record-setting weekend at St. Norbert, senior Jenna Zahorik (Reedsville, Wis.) qualified for finals in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.69 seconds. Also qualifying in the event was fellow senior Sabrina Moore (Park Ridge, Ill.), who posted a time of 12.68 for the fourth seed.
In the 100, Zahorik's and Moore's rank third and fourth all-time.
Zahorik and Moore also qualified in the 200-meter dash as Zahorik earned the second seed with a time of 26.24 while Moore put together a 26.49 for the fifth lane in tomorrow's competition.
In the preliminary rounds of the 800-meter dash, sophomore Danielle Van Grinsven (Appleton, Wis.) compiled a time of 2:25.06 to qualify for tomorrow's finals, with a seventh-place finish.
Sophomore Elizabeth Van Rixel (Athens, Wis.) and senior Kaitlynn Sabish (Campbellsport, Wis.) represented CUW in the heptathlon, which completed four of its seven events on Friday.
Van Rixel is currently in 10th place with 1,535 points through the first day, while Sabish accumulated 873 points for a 12th-place finish.
In the shot put, Elizabeth Van Rixel took third overall in her second attempt with a throw of 8.91 meters. Meanwhile, Sabish had a 5.36-meter throw.
In the 100-meter hurdles, Elizabeth Van Rixel recorded a time of 19.81 seconds, while Sabish crossed the finish line at 21.71 seconds.
Van Rixel cleared a height of 1.22 meters in the high jump, while Sabish recorded a mark of 1.10 meters.
Finally, in the 200-meter dash, Elizabeth Van Rixel ran 30.79 seconds while Kaitlynn Sabish ran 33.91.
The Falcons will look to claim the NACC title for the first time since the 2021 season as action from Wisconsin Lutheran continues tomorrow.
