In their final tune-up before the NSAA Championships next weekend in Brookings, S.D., the Bruin women's track squad returned to the 200 meter oval on the campus of Concordia University for Saturday's Concordia Invite. The women once again showed their steady improvement as three school records were lowered, bringing the season tally to ten marks either set or re-set during the 2022 campaign.
Madison Nelson, in her indoor debut, established new marks in the mile run and 3000 meters. In the mile, Nelson clocked 5:42.74 to take five seconds from the existing record. That time was good for a third-place overall finish. Nelson came back later in the 3000-meter event and reduced Lorena Ramirez' standing record by thirty-five seconds to 10:59.42. That earned her a runner-up spot in the race, the best Bruin finish in an event this season. That time is also the second-fastest recorded in the NSAA this winter.
Sarah Felten rounded out the record-breaking as she contested the 600-meter event and reduced her own record by two seconds to 1:48.07, good for 11th place. At 1000 meters, Ali Hobbs was just 0.2 seconds from her season-best, running a 3:34.69. Joining Nelson in the mile, Caroline Feig suffered a fate similar to Hobbs as she missed her season-best by just 0.6 seconds with a time of 5:54.02. Completing the Bruin competitors for the day was Olivia Russo who also completed the mile run in 6:01.87.
Head Coach Craig Christians: "After seeing the improvement after competing for five weeks in a row, I think we're going to have a good showing when we get to the conference meet next weekend. We backed off a bit with most of the team and had the women run just one event each so hopefully there's a little something in the tank next week in Brookings (NSAA meet site). Madison has been concentrating on marathon training this winter with some good mileage and some road races and it was fun to bring her indoors for the first time and see what she could do on the track. She produced a couple of great results."
The Bruins will conclude the 2022 indoor track season next Sunday, February 20 on the campus of SDSU in Brookings, South Dakota, with the NSAA championship meet. Field events begin at 9:00 AM and the 5000 meters kicks off the running events at 10:30 a.m.
