Final Results
Records
KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference had a very good showing the NCAA Division II Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Javelina Stadium hosted by Texas A&M Kingsville.
One national champion with three All-American performances were the highlights of the final outdoor competition for the 2019 season.
A total of 13 women’s student-athletes from the conference qualified for nationals, either automatically or provisionally, with a handful entering in multiple events.
Tiffin’s Marisa Gwinner stole the show in the high jump by clearing the bar set at 1.73m (five feet, eight inches). Similar to the men’s pole vault, three student-athletes represented the league with teammate Dalaney Rogala and Malone’s Olga Branney all competing.
Just a freshman, Gwinner became the first Tiffin women’s student-athlete in program history to earn top NCAA honors and she remains the only Great Midwest first-year student-athlete to earn an outdoor track and field title.
Gwinner was already on the radar as a national title contender as one of the top seeds coming into the event and an indoor All-American as well.
Gwinner now holds seven of the league’s best top-10 heights cleared in the high jump. She is also the conference's fourth outdoor women's national champ, joining elite company of Sarah Berger (Walsh), Janelle Perry (Ursuline) and Carsyn Koch-Johnson (Cedarville).
Two of the league’s best distance runners proved it once again on a national scale as Walsh’s Andra Lehotay and Hillsdale’s Allysen Eads each claimed All-American honors in their respective events.
Lehotay finished ninth in the qualifying prelims of the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:37.40. She went on to place seventh in Saturday’s final in a time of 4:38.11
Eads would go on earn 10th in the 3K steeplechase with a time of 10:54.37. She was sixth in the prelims in 10:55.06.
Two-time conference female athlete of the year and current Great Midwest Female Collegiate Achievement Award winner Carsyn Koch-Johnson withdrew from the 800-meter run due to injury.
She was joined in the event by Hillsdale’s Abbie Porter and other Chargers competing included conference track athlete of the year Kajsa Johansson and Dana Newell. Tiffin’s outdoor freshman of the year Nicole Berry and Findlay’s Hannah Hahler performed well in shot put, just missing out on All-American honors.