DAY ONE RESULTS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Augustana's women's distance medley relay team earned All-America status with their eighth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday. Henrik Holmberg is in sixth after the first day of the heptathlon and Kayla Mescher ran a personal best in the 800-meter run, but fell just short of qualifying for the final race.
“it's always exciting being All-Americans in the [distance medley relay]” head coach
Tracy Hellman said. “This is our third year in-a-row [being All-Americans] and our girls definitely ran well today.”
The quartet of Kristin Brondbo, Kayla Mescher, Emma Anderson, and Runa Falch finished the DMR in 11:45.56 to place eighth. The group was faced with immediate adversity as 400-meter specialist Colleen Everson was a last-minute scratch due to injury, but Anderson stepped up.
“Emma ran very well as a last-minute replacement” Hellman said. “And as a freshman, that's huge!”
Brondbo kicked things off with a 3:38.33 1,200-meter split. Mescher, a national qualifier in the 800-meter was forced to run the 400-meter leg, an event she provisionally qualified for early in the season. Mescher ran a 57.05-second 400 meters before handing off the baton to Anderson.
The freshman Anderson had run well in the 1,000-meter and mile runs this year, but had not competed in an 800-meter race this season. Anderson ripped off a 2:17.75 leg before Falch closed out the race with a mile time of 4:54.44.
Mescher raced in the preliminaries of the 800-meter run less than two hours before the women's DMR and set a personal best. However, the Brighton, Colo. native ran a career-best 2:11.98, but was 0.82 seconds short of qualifying for the finals tomorrow afternoon.
Competing in the morning, Holmberg finished four of the seven events of the heptathlon and sits in sixth place with 2,953 points. Holmberg kicked off the day with a 7.26-second 60-meter dash, narrowly missing a career-fastest time.
The Vik, Norway native then took to the long jump and finished with a fourth-best 6.77 meter leap. In the shot put, Holmberg lost ground with an 11.55-meter heave, 11th among the heptathlon athletes. In the high jump, Holmberg gained points back with a second-highest mark of 2.02 meters.
Holmberg will continue competition in the heptathlon while Brondbo and Falch will run in the 3,000-meter race, tomorrow March 9. Katie Guse will also participate in the women's high jump on the final day as well.
