ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict track and field team couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the first day of the MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships Friday night.
In the final event of the day, Olivia Dengel, Manon Gammon-Deering, Jenna O’Donnell and Allison Kosobud teamed up to win the 4X800-meter relay and earn the Blazers’ first conference title of the meet.
If winning the MIAC title wasn’t enough, their time made the win even more impressive. The foursome not only won the MIAC title, they also set the school record and the stadium record at Macalester College.
For their performance at the biggest meet of the outdoor season, Dengel, Gammon-Deering, O’Donnell and Kosobud have been named the Blazer Athletes of the Week.
Heading into the relay, which was the last event of the day at 8:40 p.m., Saint Benedict was seeded fourth out of 12 teams with a seeding time of 10:08.37. The Blazers blew that time out of the water.
The Blazers’ relay squad finished the 3,200-meter relay in 9:18.91 – nearly 50 seconds faster than their seed time, and almost three seconds faster than Carleton’s relay team, which took second in 9:21.41.
The time is also almost six seconds faster than the current school record of 9:24.38, set at the 2013 MIAC Championships by Lindsey Wales, Gammon-Deering, Haley Lynch and O’Donnell.
On top of being a school record, CSB’s time of 9:18.91 is the fastest time run in the stadium at the Macalester campus. The previous stadium record was 9:19.62, set in 2005 by a Macalester squad.
This same foursome was named Blazer Athletes of the Week on March 2 after running the 11
th-best distance medley relay in Division III at the time at the St. Olaf Qualifier in 12:07.02.
Winning the relay helped bump the Blazers up into third place heading into the second and final day of competition, and wrapped up a busy day for all four individuals. Dengel and Kosobud both finished in the top three in the 800-meter run prelims and Gammon-Deering ran in the 1,500-meter run preliminary earlier in the day. Dengel ended up earning All-MIAC in the 800 and Kosobud earned honorable mention, and O’Donnell took third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase Saturday to wrap up her Blazer career with All-MIAC honors. Saint Benedict finished the weekend in fifth place as a team.
