Colon Maldonado named NACC Track Athlete of the Meet as Spartan women finish second

2/24/2024 11:27:00 PM

The Aurora University women's track and field team competed at the 2024 indoor Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference Championships. The Spartans placed second with a score of 122 points.

Deedee Colon Maldonado was named Track Athlete of the Meet, thanks to the 32.5 points she scored for Aurora. She opened the weekend by winning the 5000 meter run with a time of 18:15.73. She then anchored the Spartan Distance Medley Relay to a win in a time of 13:04.33. On the second day of competition, Colon Maldonado won the mile run in 5:07.88. This set a new NACC championship record. Her final event of the meet was the 3000 meter run, which she won in a time of 10:09.61. That time was also a NACC championship record.

Lauren Bliefernicht scored a total of 26.5 points for the Spartans. She was the champion of the 200 meter dash, with a time of 25.77. This improves on her third fastest time in school history. She placed second in the 400 meter dash with a personal record of 59.75, which is now fifth in AU history. She placed third in the 60 meter dash after running the second fastest time in school history during the preliminary rounds. She then ended the meet with her fourth All-Conference performance by anchoring the Spartan 4x400 meter relay to a third place finish in a time 4:16.30.

Madison Etheridge was conference champion in the 800 meter run, finishing in a time of 2:23.99. She narrowly edged out second place and is the first Spartan runner to be victorious in that event since 2019. She did this shortly after earning All-Conference status in the mile, by finishing in third place with a time of 5:22.57. She then earned her third All-Conference honor of the meet, by running a leg on the third place 4x400 meter relay.

Skylar Gibbs was the NACC champion in the pentathlon. To start the event, she ran the fifth-fastest 60-meter hurdle race in Aurora history with a time of 9.24. She also finished first in the field in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:40.33. She did not place worse than third in any of the five events contested. She then returned on day two and earned All-Conference honors with her third place finish in the 60 meter hurdles. Gibbs also ran a leg on the All-Conference Spartan 4x400 meter relay.

Alayna Koehler also earned individual All-Conference honors by placing third in the pentathlon. This is the second consecutive year she placed in the top three in that event. Koehler's best event of the competition was the high jump, where she placed first with a height of 1.56 meters.

The distance medley relay of N'Dya Fields, Mika Fields, Savannah Vasquez, and Colon Maldonado won the event. Their time of 13:04.33 was nine seconds ahead of the second place team.

The 4x400 meter relay team of Mika Fields, Etheridge, Gibbs, Bliefernicht earned All-Conference status by finishing in third place.

Other Scorers of the Meet:
Silja Erickson – Shot Put – 5^th
Mary Dietz – 60m hurdles – 5^th
N'Dya Fields – 3000m – 6^th
Emma Jasutis – 5000m – 7^th
Abby Liesen – 5000m – 8^th

Team Scores: St. Norbert College- 180.50
Aurora University- 122
Concordia University Wisconsin- 113.50
Milwaukee School of Engineering- 97
Wisconsin Lutheran College- 46
Illinois Institute of Technology- 43
Edgewood College- 32
Concordia University Chicago- 14
Benedictine University- 6

Complete results can be found here.

Up next, the Spartans compete at the Wartburg NCAA Qualifier in Waverly, Iowa. Competition begins Friday, March 1^st.

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