LINCOLN, Neb. — The Middlebury College women’s distance medley relay team earned all-American honors for the fifth straight season to highlight the Panthers’ efforts this past weekend at the NCAA Division III indoor track and field championship meet, hosted by the University of Nebraska.
On Friday, the team of Alison Maxwell, Jackie Kearney, Alexandra Morris and Erzie Nagy took seventh in 11:44.95. A women’s DMR team representing Middlebury won the national title in 2011 and 2012, were runners-up a year ago, and took seventh 2010. Wisconsin-Oshkosh repeated as national champions with a time of 11:39.94 as the top seven places were separated by just a little more than five seconds.
Also on Friday, Middlebury’s Wilder Schaaf finished fourth in his heat in the mile run with a time of 4:13.36. In Saturday’s final, Schaaf narrowly missed All-American status — eighth place or better — by a little more than a tenth of a second with a ninth-place run of 4:10.99.
On Saturday, the Middlebury 4×400 relay quartet of Fritz Parker, Bryan Holtzman, Alex Nichols and Peter Hetzler finished in 12th place with a time of 3:19.89.
On the women’s side, Laura Strom entered the high jump with the best qualifying height of 5’8.5”, but failed to clear the bar in her three attempts.
The teams will now turn their attention to the outdoor season. Middlebury will travel to California for its spring break trip this coming week.