Falcons Duplicate '08 Feat, Win Pair Of Indoor MAC Championships
The MAC Male Track Athlete of the Year, senior Patrick Roach claimed two individual titles Saturday.

Bethlehem, PA — The Messiah College track and field program put forth perhaps its finest collective performance of the season Saturday, winning both the men’s and women’s MAC Indoor Championships at Lehigh University — the second consecutive year the Falcons have accomplished double league titles.

Messiah’s men finished with 120 team points, edging rival Elizabethtown College (109 points) and DeSales University (108). Widener University, projected to finish first by its entry standards, finished fourth with 95 team points. It was the first-ever outright championship for the Falcons’ men after tying with Elizabethtown last year. Messiah’s women scored 163 points to flatten the competition Saturday, as DeSales University finished second with just 88 points.

The Falcons’ women collected seven individual championships and the men four, while senior Patrick Roach was named the MAC Male Track Athlete of the Year and junior Ted Simmons the MAC Male Field Athlete of the Year. Junior Kristen Bates earned MAC Female Field Athlete of the Year, while head coach Dale Fogelsanger picked up league coach of the year honors on both the men’s and women’s sides.

“Our athletes rose to the championship meet level today,” Fogelsanger said. “That’s what got it done.”

Bates paced the women’s 163-point performance, claiming five first-place finishes. Bates was the MAC Champion in the 55-meter dash (:07.48), the 55-meter hurdles (:08.31), the high jump (5 feet, 1 and ¾ inches), the long jump (18 feet, 2 and ¼ inches) and the triple jump (38 feet, 6 inches) — going five for six in events in which she competed. (Bates finished fifth in the 200-meter dash in a time of :27.50.)

Her numbers in the long and triple jumps (both new school records) met the NCAA Indoor National Championships provisional qualifying marks, while Bates now ranks eighth and sixth in all of NCAA Division III in the respective events. Her triple jump distance came just ¾ of an inch off the national automatic qualifying standard, setting a new overall MAC Championships record as well.

Roach and Simmons were Messiah’s top performers on the men’s side, each claiming a pair of top finishes. Roach won the 400-meter dash (:50.28) and the 800-meter run (1:57.38), while Simmons captured titles in the high jump (6 feet, 8 inches) and the long jump (21 feet, 6 and ¼ inches).

Simmons’ high jump mark provisionally qualified him for NCAA national competition, as he finished fourth overall in last year’s national championships.

Saturday’s results were anything but a three-athlete production, however, as Messiah scored points in all but two of the 18 women’s events and in 15 of the 18 men’s competitions. The Falcons boasted 14 First Team All-Conference performances on the women’s side and 13 on the men’s side, while the teams combined for 22 Second Team All-Conference performances (13 women’s and nine men’s).

Two additional school school records were broken at the meet, as sophomore Grace Kaste lowered her previous 800-meter run best with a 2:19.95 clip, taking the title and erasing her previous school mark of 2:20.82 set earlier this season. Freshman Tyler Newhook finished second overall in the men’s mile, running in a time of 4:21.32 — a slight improvement over junior Cory Kaufman’s school-record 4:22.08, set earlier in the year. Kaufman finished sixth in Saturday’s mile in 4:32.52.

Newhook picked up eight big points for the Falcons in the 5,000-meter run, going from fifth to second in the final three laps to secure a runner-up finish in a 15:40.03 clip. Junior Artie Black also scored in that event, finishing sixth in a time of 15:59.46.

Roach complemented his pair of MAC Championships with a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash (:23.21), while sophomore Jesse Weidemann backed him in the 400 (finishing sixth, :53.59) and junior Eddy Palmer providing support in the 800 (fifth, 2:00.53).

Simmons first-place finishes in both the high jump and long jump were supported by a second-place result in the triple jump (43 feet, 3 and ¼ inches), while senior Jason Brown added a point with a sixth-place in the event (40 feet, 11 and ½ inches). Brown led a strong Messiah contingent in the pentathlon, recording a personal-best 2,808 points en route to a third-place finish — a mark just 14 points shy of second place. Sophomore Christopher Boyd (2,563 points, fourth place) and freshman Dietrich Alderfer (2,292 points, sixth place) also set personal-best performances.

Like the men, Messiah’s women’s pentathletes all set personal records, as junior Brianna Eshelman (2,643 points), sophomore Kaitlyn Valis (2,621 points) and sophomore Emily Olson (2,483 points) finished first, second, third. Messiah received a similar performance in the women’s 5,000-meter run, as senior Jennifer Kooser (18:45.20), freshman Courtney Long (18:56.15) and junior Erin Rhodes (19:08.27) finished four, five six. The Falcons recorded three straight point-scorers in the long jump as well, as Eshelman (16 feet, 7 and ¼ inches), senior Delilah Ruiz (16 feet, 6 inches) and Valis (16 feet, ¼ of an inch) complemented Bates’ title finishing fourth, fifth and sixth overall.

Freshman Lauren Harte claimed second in the 400-meter dash in a time of 1:01.88, while junior Erin Rhodes finished fourth in the women’s mile (5:31.44). Freshman Brooke Airey flanked Kaste in the 800-meter run, taking fourth place in a time of 2:22.50.

All of Messiah’s relay teams — both men’s and women’s — finished in the top four of their respective events, while the Falcons’ women’s poll vaulters of freshmen Emily Brantner and Abby McDonald each scored points by clearing 9 feet and ¼ of an inch. On the men’s side, sophomore Derek Forney took home sixth place overall (11 feet, 11 and ¾ inches). Freshman Matt Wicks also picked up two points in the weight throw, heaving the object a personal-best 44 feet, 8 inches.

Fogelsanger will now wait to see just how many of his provisional-qualifying athletes will be invited to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, as well as deciding which events to enter those that have qualified for multiple competitions. Information on Messiah’s trip to the indoor championships — slated to take place March 13 and 14 at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology — will be posted on this site once it becomes known.