ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – While most of campus is preparing to leave for spring break this week, the College of Saint Benedict track and field team is gearing up for the 2020 MIAC Indoor Track and Field Championships. And this year, CSB doesn't even have to leave the St. Joseph/Collegeville area for the conference meet.
 
CSB and Saint John's are sharing hosting duties for the 2020 conference indoor championships. The meet starts at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, with the women's pentathlon and the men's heptathlon. The open events and relays start Friday at 4 p.m. with the women's long jump and men's weight throw, and track events kick off at 4:30 p.m. with the women's 60 hurdle prelims.
 
Saturday, women's triple jump and men's shot put begin at noon at the McNeeley Spectrum on the SJU campus, and the women's 4x200-meter relay kicks off track events for the final day of the meet at 1 p.m.
 
Saint Benedict qualified 19 individuals in 14 events, not including relays, for the 2020 MIAC Championships. Heading into the meet, the Bennies have three individuals seeded in the top five in their respective events. Senior Lee Stelten – who has finished in the top eight in the indoor pole vault in each of her first three seasons – heads into the meet with the fifth-best mark in the conference at 3.35 meters.
 
Junior Kelly Klingelhutz and sophomore Laura Mitch are both top eight in their running events. Klingelhutz is seeded seventh in the 600 after running a career-best time of 1:40.53 at the St. Olaf Invite last week. She is also seeded 12^th in the 400. Mitch is seeded eighth in the 400 with a time of 60.71 seconds – a time that also moved her into the top 10 in CSB indoor track and field history.
 
Junior Madison Brown is seeded top 16 in both the 60- and 200-meter dashes, and first year Hailey Johnson is in the top 12 in both the 200 and 400. First year Aidan McLoone qualified for the meet in both the triple jump and long jump, and senior Sarah Gigstad is set to compete in both the shot put and weight throw. Sophomore Maggie Beckmann is seeded 11^th in the weight throw after moving into the top 10 in program history with a mark of 13.23 meters Friday at St. Olaf. Sophomore Stephanie Pickthorn kicks off the weekend for CSB Thursday as the team's lone competitor in the pentathlon.
 
For a complete schedule of events, as well as links to live streaming, results and photos, head to the MIAC website: https://miac.prestosports.com/championships/itf/2019-20/index.