[Women's Indoor Track & Field] Women's Track & Field Takes Fourth in GPAC Championship

Doane Women's Track and Field hosted the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Championship on Friday and Saturday in Crete. The Tiger women posted 104.5 points to place fourth overall with 21 finishes to earn All-GPAC honors. Concordia was the team champion with Hastings and Dordt taking second and third.

The weekend started with the women's pentathlon. Lindsay Adams (FR/Omaha, Neb.) ran away with the title, posting 3,627 points. Nicole Harms (SO/Sterling, Neb.) picked up a fourth place finish, collecting 3,352 points. Both women got started in the right direction in the opening event, the 60m hurdles. Adams ran a personal-best time of 8.97 to meet the NAIA automatic qualifying mark. Harms posted a time of 9.07 seconds, falling inside the provisional qualifying time as both runners collected over 890 points in the event.

Adams finished with the top mark in four of the five events contested, including a provisional qualifying mark of 5.50m (18-00.50) in the long jump. Harms was right on her heels in most events, finishing in the top eight of each, as the teammates continued to push each other.

On the track during the second day, Adams and Harms continued their success in the hurdles. During the prelims both runners hit the provisional standard to advance to finals where they finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Annika Pingel (SR/Pella, Iowa) hit a pair of NAIA standards on the day. In the 600m, she placed second with a personal best time of 1:36.61 to meet the automatic qualifying standard. She met the provisional standard in the 1000m run with a time of 3:03.69.

Also earning all-conference honors on the track were Allie Binder (SR/Table Rock, Neb.) and Isabel Bothwell (JR/Gretna, Neb.). Binder placed fourth in the 3,000m run with a time of 10:51.20 while Bothwell took eighth in the 60m dash with a time of 8.02.

Relay teams placing in the Top 3 earn All-GPAC honors and the Tigers' 4x400m squad accomplished the honor. Running a time of 4:04.54 were Pingel, Harms, Adams, and Bothwell. Earning points for the team score on the 4x800m relay team were Rachel Walters (JR/Gretna, Neb.), Lauren Siefken (SO/Syracuse, Neb.), Aly Plock, and Rylee Rice (SO/Ainsworth, Neb.) as they placed sixth with a time of 10:24.24.

In the field events, Allison Skala (SR/North Platte, Neb.) hit two NAIA automatic qualifying throws. She won the shot put with a throw of 13.56m (44-06.00) while taking fifth in the weight throw with a mark of 16.58m (54-04.75). Macy Fuller (SO/Kearney, Neb.) also hit an automatic qualifying mark in the weight throw with a toss of 16.51m (54-02.00).

Receiving all-conference honors in the field events also went to a pair of Tigers in the long jump, triple jump, high jump, and pole vault. Adams and Harms placed in the long jump, with Adams taking fourth with a mark of 5.49m (18-00.25) and Harms placing seventh with a mark of 5.37m (17-07.50). In the triple jump, Olivia Diggins (SO/Logan, Iowa) hit three big jumps in the finals as her last was 10.88m (35-08.50) to place second. Lauren Theiler (SR/Omaha, Neb.) added a fourth place finish with a mark of 10.68m (35-00.50).

Sarah Theiler (SO/Arlington, Neb.) placed third in the high jump with a mark of 1.60m (5-03.00) and Isabelle Watson (SR/Columbus, Neb.) tied for seventh with a mark of 1.55m (5-01.00). In the pole vault, Samantha Knapp (FR/Elm Creek, Neb.) and Nicole Everhart (SO/Gretna, Neb.) finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Pulling double duty on the day as both competed for the Tiger Dance team in the morning at a competition in Seward, Knapp cleared 3.12m (10-02.75) and Everhart cleared 2.97m (9-09.00).