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It's a great day to be a Spartan

Aurora University Athletics

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Lisa Rodriguez

Women's Track and Field

Spartan women capture third straight NACC Outdoor Track Championship

Rodriguez and the Spartans ran away from the NACC
For the second year in a row, the Aurora University women's outdoor track & field team has completed the conference triple crown: NACC champions in cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track in a single academic year. This is the third year in a row that the Spartans have won the outdoor meet.  (Concordia-Wisconsin won the first five NACC outdoor titles; those are the only two schools ever to have won the conference meet) Head coach
Emily Paull
 was named Track Athlete of the Meet for her prodigious output on the oval.  Rodriguez won the 200 and 400, led off the winning 4x100, and was fifth in the 100.
 
The revelation of the meet was Rodriguez in the 400 meters.  After not running the open 400 all spring, Rodriguez and
Rachel Burkhart
 in setting a new meet record, 4:01.96, in the 4x400.  Not to be outdone by the sprinters, Paull took an editor's harsh pen to the NACC record book this weekend.
 
On Friday, Paull won the steeplechase in 10:51.23, a new meet record.  (
 had perhaps the heaviest load of any athlete on the women's team this weekend.  She did the seven-event heptathlon and finished third with 3564 points, ahead of teammates Ashley Johnson in fourth and Ella Black in eighth.  She also finished third in the javelin and long jump, and was second in the 100 meter high hurdles.
 
Also in the hurdles: first-year Erica Brown finished fifth both the 100 highs (17.33) and 400 intermediates (69.95).  Both times are new personal bests.
 
Finally, anyone racing 15000 meters on the track in less than 24 hours should not go unrecognized.  Five women in the conference (three Spartans) scored in both the 10000 on Friday night and the 5000 on Saturday afternoon.  Times were largely irrelevant as both races featured a slow pace in the very early going.  Those five women were: Christina Luptak (second in both), Genesis Cerrato of Rockford (winner of the 10000), AJ Conant of Rockford, Taylore Anderson (fifth in both), and Sherry Maschmeyer (6th in the 10k, 8th in the 5k).
 
For many Spartans, the season is over.  The rest will compete at the Dr. Keeler Invitational at North Central College on Thursday and Friday, chasing national qualifiers and personal bests.
 
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