Greenville Edges Webster For SLIAC Women's Track And Field Title

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It came down to the final event of the day but the Greenville College women's track and field team edged Webster University for the 2017 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship title. Greenville won the championship with 238 team points, edging out Webster University (208) and third-place Westminster College.

After eight hours the inaugural SLIAC Women's Track and Field title would come down to the day's final event, the women's hammer throw. Greenville took the top three spots in the hammer throw, accumulating 24 total points and pulling away from the Gorloks. Marideth Tate, Jessie Chappel, and Ellen Neese helped the Panthers secure the title by placing first-second-third on the throw.

The Panthers won nine events, including the hammer throw. In addition to her second-place finish in the hammer throw, Jessie Chappel took the discus title with a throw of 34.84 meters. Monica Niebrugge added a first-place finish in the triple jump while Rachel Hanna took first in the pole vault and Sierah Ruffner took the title in the high jump. Greenville's Chelsea Gilles also took all three short distance races, sweeping the 100 meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter dash. The Panthers also notched a win in the 4x100 relay, narrowly besting Webster by just over a half-second.

Webster meanwhile made their move on the Panthers with strong showings in the hurdles and closed the team points score late when their 4x400 relay team cruised to a first-place finish, leading on every lap. Meghan Illig carried the Gorloks in the hurdles, winning both the 100-meter and 400-meter races while her teammate Meredith Sowers added a pair of second-place showings. Colleen Coday picked up big points for Webster in the high jump, finishing second while Jakara Davidson-Brooks collected a first-place medal in the long jump.

Westminster College placed third at the championships with 91 points. The Blue Jays long distance runners dominated the day with Shannon McCaul winning the 800-meter run, 1500 meter run, and 3000-meter steeplechase and her teammate Jessie Kuykendall taking the 5000-meter run and 10,000-meter run.

Fontbonne took fourth place with 42 points with a strong showing by Raven Venegas. Venegas grabbed a first-place finish in the shot put (12.61 meters), while also placing second in the discus and fifth in the hammer. Lynsey Wehrenberg also recorded a first-place finish for the Griffins, taking first in the javelin with a throw of 27.77 meters.

Spalding was fifth with 15 points, with Katie Suiters tallying 11 of the points. Suiters was third in the discus, fifth in the shot put and the javelin, and sixth in the hammer.

Principia collected six points to place sixth overall as Deirdre Wright had the highest finish for Principia on the day with a fourth-place showing in the triple jump.

Eureka College was seventh with five total team points, all coming from Ashley Harfst. Harfst took fourth place in the discus, just over one meter shy of the first-place finisher, and added a sixth-place finish in in the javelin.

Following the conclusion of all events, SLIAC coaches recognized performers with conference individual awards. The 2017 SLIAC Women's Co-Athlete of the Year in Track was Shannon McCaul (Westminster) and Chelsea Gilles (Greenville) while the Field Athlete of the Year was Jessica Chappel (Greenville). The Newcomer of the Year winner in track was Webster's Meredith Sowers while Fontbonne's Raven Venegas was named the winner in the field portion.