A Top 20 NCAA Meet Finish
GENEVA, Ohio (5/27/16)---Led by seniors Mikayla Forness and Emma Peterson, Concordia finished in 16th place at the NCAA National Outdoor Meet.
The 16th-place finish is the highest for the Cobbers at a national outdoor meet since the 1998 season when they claimed 10th place at the meet held at Macalester.
Concordia recorded the top finish of any school in the MIAC at the NCAA National Outdoor Meet. The Cobbers were eight places ahead of the next best MIAC school.
Concordia ended the 2017 national outdoor meet with 15 team points. All 15 were earned by Forness and Peterson. Both athletes earned All-American honors at the meet.
Forness finished in fifth place in the javelin on Thursday and earned four team points. She backed that up with a sixth-place finish in the heptathlon which netted the Cobbers three more points.
The remaining eight team points came from the legs of Peterson who recorded a runner-up finish in the high jump on Friday and picked up eight team points. Peterson broke her own school record in the event in her second-place finish. She cleared the bar at 5-08 which bettered her old mark of 5-07.75 set earlier in the year at the Drake Relays.
Peterson's bid for a second All-American honor at this year's national meet came up just short as she finished in 11th place in the triple jump which was held on Saturday. Peterson posted a distance of 38-07.00 which was less than two inches from qualifying for the finals and the Top 9 spots in the event.
Mandy Mercil was the third member of the Cobber NCAA meet contingent and she narrowly missed out on qualifying for the finals in the shot put in her very first NCAA National Meet. She placed 10th in the final standings after tying for the ninth spot in the prelims.
NCAA Division III National Outdoor Meet Final Top 20 Team Standings
1. Washington U. – 56
2. Ithaca – 37
T3. Carthage – 33
T3. Williams – 33
T5. Bridgewater (Va.) – 29
T5. SUNY Geneseo – 29
7. Nebraska Wesleyan – 27
T8. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps – 26
T8. Ohio Northern – 26
10. Wis.-Eau Claire – 23
11. Bates – 22
12. Wis.-Whitewater – 21
T13. UMass Boston – 20
T13. Aurora – 20
15. Stevens Institute – 16
16. Concordia-Moorhead – 15
T17. Wis.-Platteville – 14
T17. George Fox – 14
T17. Wartburg – 14
T20. Wheaton (Ill.) – 12
T20. MIT – 12
T20. Westminster (Pa.) – 12
T20. Dubuque – 12
Cobber Women's Track & Field Outdoor All-Americans
2017 - Mikayla Forness, Emma Peterson
2016 - Olivia Johnson, Emma Peterson
2015 - Hillary Birchem, Cherae Reeves
2014 - Hilary Thompson, Cherae Reeves
2013 - Kaari Jensen, Cherae Reeves
2012 - Kaari Jensen
2010 - Leah Kay
2009 - Leah Kay
2008 - Leah Kay
2007 - Heather Schuster
2006 - Angie Pfeiffer, Natalie Hanson
2005 - Nicole Plante
2004 - Angie Pfeiffer, Amy Ravenhorst, Alissa Bilden, Kelly Olson
2003 - Angie Pfeiffer
2002 - Kelli Tranby
2000 - Maria DeBoer
1999 - Maria DeBoer
1998 - Maria DeBoer, Laura Utke, Becky Kearns
1997 - Renee Erickson
1996 - Renee Erickson
1995 - Renee Erickson, Tracy Bernsten
1994 - Renee Erickson, Tracy Bernsten, Merrilee Rutherford