GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. -- The Trine University women's indoor track & field team finished as runners-up at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Indoor Championships hosted by Calvin (Mich.) University in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The Thunder finished just nine points shy of Hope (Mich.) College who ended the day's events with 183 points. Trine tallied 174 points to place second and host school Calvin was third with 86 points.
Trine had several individual champions led by freshman Haley Livingston (Forth Worth, Texas/Everman) who won a pair of events, one on the track and one in the field events. Livingston captured both the 60-meter hurdles and the triple jump. In the 60m Livingston posted a time of 9.48 seconds in the preliminaries, momentarily breaking the Trine indoor record in the event that was previously held by Lydia Walterhouse (9.58 seconds). Later in the day, in the finals, Livingston improved upon her prelim time with a mark of 9.35 seconds to re-break her previous all-time mark. Off the track, Livingston posted the best overall distance in the triple jump of 34' 8.25". Her mark also broke the school indoor record in the triple jump that was held by Abigail Kuhlman (34' 5.00").
Additionally, Livingston finished in second place in the long jump with a distance of 16' 11.25" and was third in the 60-meter dash in a time of 8.12 seconds.
Also claiming individual titles in the field events was junior Autumn Presley (Pleasant Lake, Ind./Angola) in the pole vault and fellow junior Valerie Obear (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) in the weight throw. Presley posted a top clearance of 10' 0.00" in the pole vault which was about a foot-and-a-half higher than her nearest opponent. Obear also recorded an impressive victory in her event (weight throw) with a distance of 57' 3.50" about five-and-a-half feet farther than second place.
Seniors Megan Theismann (Ossian, Ind./Norwell) and Elizabeth Lohman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) recorded a pair of back-to-back performances in the 5000-meter and 3000-meter runs with Theismann winning the 5000m in a time of 17:42.93 and Lohman coming in second by crossing the finish line in a time of 17:55.31. Theismann then recorded the second fastest overall time in the 3000m of 10:26.23, followed by Lohman who took third place after running a mark of 10:29.92.
Freshman Kennedi Sternberg (Kouts, Ind./Kouts) competed alongside Livingston in the 60m dash and posted a top-three mark of 8.12 seconds which put her in third place overall.
Sophomore Lia Vawter (Franklin, Ind./Franklin) rounded out the top individual efforts for the meet with a second-place showing in the high jump at a height of 5' 0.25", one inch from tying the event champion.
In relay action, the Thunder had a pair of third-place finishes in both the distance medley relay and the 4x400-meter relay. In the DMR, the team of freshman Ana Parker (White Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Northern), junior Paige McGonigal (Coventry Twp., Ohio/Coventry), freshman Marissa Kenney (South Bend, Ind./J.W. Riley) and senior Ruth Luebcke (Harlem, Ga./Crown Point) had a combined time of 13:26.13.
In the 4x400, juniors Stephanie Hartpence (Elkart, Ind./Concord), Chloe Brittain (Breckenridge, Mich./Breckenridge), sophomore Amira Faulkner (Bellbrook, Ohio/Bellbrook) and Kenney ran an overall time of 4:16.91 to finish third overall in the event.
The MIAA Championship caps the indoor season for the Trine women.