Women’s Indoor Track Places 15th at NCAAs

Five members of the women’s indoor track team competed over the weekend at the 2013 NCAA Championships in Naperville, Ill. on March 8 and 9.  On Friday, the women of Wisconsin-Oshkosh upset the top-ranked distance medley relay (DMR) team from Middlebury, made up of seniors Sarah O’Brien ’13, Addie Tousley ’13 and Juliet Ryan-Davis ’13 as well as first-year Alex Morris ’16. Sophomore Alison Maxwell ’15 also competed in the mile on Friday, failing to qualify with a time of 5:06.86.  Tousley followed up her performance on Friday by earning All-American honors in the women’s 5,000 meter on Saturday.

After breaking a Division III national record with a finishing time of 11:32.36 on Feb. 22 at Boston University, and winning the last two NCAA Championships, the Middlebury DMR team was favored going into the weekend.  Middlebury ran well, posting a time of 11:34.51, narrowly defeating third-place Geneseo St., but couldn’t match Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s record-setting pace of 11:32.24.  Wisconisin-Oshkosh also placed first in the overall rankings on the weekend.

Coach Nicole Wilkerson explained that Tousley finished strong to help the team place second.

“We went from fifth to second in the last 100 meters,” said Wilkerson.

All four members of Middlebury’s DMR team received All-American honors. The DMR team will look significantly different next year following the departure of three seniors, but will feature the return of Morris.

“It’s been an absolute honor running with these three seniors and I’m extremely lucky they accepted me the way they did,” Morris said. “They are phenomenal and inspirational runners. I definitely felt a certain responsibility being the only freshman because I knew how much this meant to them and I wanted them to have the best last indoor race for Middlebury that they could have.”

Tousley faced the challenge of bringing her best on back-to-back days. After running the anchor leg of the DMR on Friday and bringing the team back from a slow start, she entered the 5,000-meter race as the third-ranked runner, and finished right where she started, posting a time of 17:02.11, less than five seconds behind the winner from Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Christy Cazzola. Cazzola, incidentally, also ran the final leg for Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the DMR on Friday.

Alison Maxwell ’15 entered Friday’s mile preliminary as the eighth-ranked runner, but unfortunately failed to qualify for the final.  Maxwell ran a 5:06.86, good for 14th on the day but was unable to make her way into the top 10.

Overall the Middlebury women placed 15th at the event out of 64 teams competing.

“The big focus is the NESCAC meet at end of April,” said Wilkerson.

Both the men and women begin the outdoor, spring season during the spring recess when they travel to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. on March 23.