GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Trine women's track and field team placed fourth at MIAA Field Day, which concluded Friday at Calvin College.
The fourth-place finish is the best outdoor finish for the Thunder since the school joined the conference in 2004. Trine performers combined to score 94 points. Kara Eck (Auburn, Ind. / DeKalb) notched both of the team's first place finishes. The Thunder also got school record performances from Kyla Binfet (West Yellowstone, Mont. / West Yellowstone), Rebecca Flora (Greenfield, Ind. /Greenfield Central) and the 4-x-400-meter relay team at Field Day.
Eck won the shot put today with a toss of 13.59 meters (44 feet, 7 inches). The junior won her second conference championship in the event. She is ranked 14th in the nation in the shot put. Andrea Hagar (Goshen, Ind. / Fairfield) added a sixth-place finish in the shot put to go along with her second-place finish in the discus and third-place throw in the hammer throw yesterday.
Eck's performance followed up a Thunder sweep of the top three spots in the hammer throw yesterday. Eck won her third consecutive conference title in the event with a throw of 57.02 meters (187 feet, 1 inch). Jenn Steyer (Fenton, Mich. / Lake Fenton) finished second, while Hagar rounded out the top three. Eck and Steyer have accounted for the top two performances in the MIAA three years in a row in the hammer throw.
Binfet's performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase highlighted the efforts on the track today. The junior broke her own school record with a time of 11:28.41. She placed second.
Jensyn Garrow (Archbold, Ohio / Archbold), Flora, Kaylyn Forrest (Cassopolis, Mich. / Ross-Beatty) and Ashlyn Maskow (Howe, Ind. / Lakeland) combined to set a new school mark in the 4-x-400-meter relay. The quartet of runners beat the old program mark by a second to finish with a time of 4:03.04. They placed second in the meet.
Garrow also saw success in the 400-meter dash. She ran a personal-best time of 58.95 seconds to place second. Flora placed fourth with a time of 1:00.72. Flora set a new school record in the event yesterday in the preliminaries of the 400-meter dash, running a time of 58.66 seconds.
The 4-x-100-meter relay group of Ashlyn Maskow, Forrest, Hope Scholma (Montpelier, Ohio / Montpelier) and Massie Jo Maskow (Howe, Ind. / Lakeland) placed third. The team recorded a time of 50.33 seconds.
Forrest earned individual success elsewhere. She placed fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.20 seconds and ran a time of 12.78 seconds to place sixth in the 100-meter dash.
Rounding out Trine's scorers was Hannah Blystone (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel), who placed sixth in the 1500-meter run. She crossed the finish line in 4:58.24.
CLICK HERE for complete results.
Members of the Trine women's track and field team will compete in last-chance meets over the next several weeks to try to solidify bids to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships in Geneva, Ohio.