Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, tkgallisath@noctrl.edu
May 24, 2023 - The North Central College women’s track and field team took full advantage of last chance qualifying meets to move up six spots in the national rankings, coming in at No. 11 ahead of the Division III Outdoor National Championships in Rochester, New York on May 25-27. The Cardinals will be competing across eight events over the weekend.
While North Central sits just outside the nation’s top-10 teams, UW-La Crosse — the indoor team champion — is the favorite for the upcoming outdoor championships with two top-marks and 16 top-10 performances. Loras ranks second with five of the nation’s top marks and 10 top-10 performances. Washington (Mo.) comes in at No. 3 with one national leading mark and eight top-10 efforts.
Lindsey Novak continues to make her impact known on the track having turned in qualifying marks in four events in this year’s championship: 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, 4-by-100-meter relay, and 4-by-400-meter relay. Novak broke the school record in the 100 and 200-meter dashes with a wind-aided, 11.94 second run in the 100 and a 24.34 second effort in the 200-meter dash. Novak ranks eighth in Division III in the 200-meter dash this season while also ranking eighth in the 400-meter dash. Novak’s 400-meter time of 55.42 seconds is the second-fastest in program history.
Novak is also a part of the record holding 4-by-100-meter relay quartet alongside Marcedes Jackson, Julia Babinec, and Denise Partee — all of whom qualified in individual events in addition to the relay. The relay clocked a 46.22 second run at its home last chance meet, the Carius-Gregory Invitational, and owns the fourth-fastest time in the national’s field. The relay returns to the national stage after reaching All-America status at the 2022 outdoor championships when they finished sixth (47.09).
The 4-by-400-meter relay of Novak, Babinec, Faith Ladin and Cali Minkie turned in the program’s second fastest time in school history of three minutes, 47.89 seconds at the Augustana College Midwest Twilight Qualifier to rank 12th heading into the championships.
Babinec and Partee will also be competing in the 100-meter hurdles with the nation’s eighth (13.89) and ninth (13.91) fastest times, respectively. Babinec is the 2023 CCIW Champion in the event while Partee was nearly level with her, finishing second to earn All-CCIW honors. Partee’s time is a career best that currently sits third on the program’s all-time list. Babinec returns to the outdoor national stage for the third straight year after placing fourth at the 2022 championships and sixth in 2021 in the event.
In addition to the relay, Jackson makes her individual debut in the 100-meter dash this weekend after turning in the nation’s 25th fastest mark of 11.98 at the Augustana College Midwest Twilight Qualifier. Jackson is the 2023 conference champion in the 100-meter while also being a part of the CCIW Championship winning 4-by-100-meter relay.
Ladin not only turned in an impressive performance in the qualifying 4-by-400-meter relay, she also holds the 13th best mark in the heptathlon with 4,554 points — a career best for Ladin that ranks second in program history. Ladin was recently named the 2023 CCIW Field Student-Athlete of the Year after claiming the conference title in the heptathlon but she also ran on the winning 4-by-400-meter relay team and earned All-CCIW honors in the javelin throw.
Alexandra Draves returns to the national championships after achieving her second All-America award at the 2023 indoor national championships in March. Draves was the runner-up finisher in the weight throw indoors and finished eighth at the 2022 indoor championships. Draves won her first-ever individual conference title outdoors in the hammer throw with a personal best mark of 54.17 meters (177’9”) — a mark that ranks 14th ahead of this weekend’s championship. This marks Draves third year qualifying for the championships in the hammer throw.
Each of the national qualifiers earned USTFCCCA All-Region accolades in their respective events in addition to Gwen Berenyi and Natalie Johnson in the pole vault and Hannah Jones in the javelin throw. The complete list can be found HERE.
The heptathlon will kick off national competition for the Cardinals on Thursday, May 25 at 11 a.m. followed by the 4-by-100-meter relay prelims at 5:15 p.m., the 200-meter dash prelims at 7:20 p.m. and the 4-by-400-meter relay prelims at 8:50 p.m. The heptathlon will pick up on Friday at 11:30 a.m. followed by the 100-meter hurdles prelims at 5:15 p.m., the 400-meter dash prelims at 5:45 p.m. and the 100-meter dash prelims at 6:15 p.m. The hammer throw will open up competition on Saturday at 10 a.m. with finals for each of the above races to follow. All times are eastern standard time.
The complete meet schedule and championship information can be found HERE.
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Credits:
Steve Woltmann