Although the MSU track and field team concluded its Big Ten action on Sunday with a fifth-place finish at the 2011 Big Ten Outdoor Championships at Iowa, the team came away with three individual conference titles.
Senior Emily MacLeod, junior Becca Buchholtz and sophomore Beth Rohl won individual conference championships and led the way for the Spartans, who would finish with a total score of 74.5 points on the day.
Rohl was the first to come away with a Big Ten Championship when she won the women’s discus throw with a school record toss of 55.94 meters.
Another school record was set as Buchholtz joined Rohl with her second-consecutive title in the women’s high jump. After missing on her first two tries, Buchholtz posted a record height of 1.82 meters on her third attempt.
MacLeod won the 5,000 meter run with a time of 16:09.10 for her fourth individual crown during the 2010-11 school year.
“We challenged the guys yesterday to just compete,” director of track and field Walt Drenth said in a release from the MSU Athletics Department.
“We didn’t have enough guys in the finals to have an impact on the meet. We just wanted to see them fight for every opportunity that they had competitively.
“Finishing fifth is something but we are aspiring to be higher than that. This is the most points that we have scored in a long time and it was a step in the right direction.”
MSU will travel to the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., on May 26 to 28.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
