Ashley Lage | Staff Writer

This past weekend, the men and women’s track and field teams traveled to Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa to compete for the team and individual outdoor track conference finals.

This was the final meet for most of the Beavers, although some put themselves in positions to qualify for the national meet. Overall, the women’s team finished fifth while men’s placed seventh.

A few highlights from the weekend include the ten all-conference accolades. Two came on Friday night and the other eight were from performances on Saturday.

Senior Bo Darrow was the first with his hefty toss that placed him second in the javelin throw.

“All credit has to go to Coach Jeff Brennan and javelin Coach Lisa Shepherd. Coach Brennan gave me the opportunity to compete, and I’m really thankful for that. Coach Shepherd knows so much about the art of the event and her knowledge was crucial to everybody’s success. Neither one of them gave up on me throughout the season, especially early in the season when practice started and I was completely new and clueless about javelin. They always pushed me to get better and have set a standard for success,” Darrow said.

Others who earned All-IIAC honors were sophomore Seth Woodson, junior Maggie Marker, seniors Rachel Burnette, Amber Riedy, Andrew Smith Ryan Eberly; and the team members of the men’s 4×800, 4×400, and the women’s 4×100. This was an improvement from last year’s finishes where the Beavers took home nine accolades.

Marker personally made many improvements throughout the year.

“I felt the season really ended well as it started off quite slow with all of the poor weather conditions.As for me, the season went better than expected. I started off 6th in the 200m dash and ended up placing third,” Marker said.

Overall, the Beaver track and field teams finished strong. We can look forward to next year as younger runners will continue to become stronger, but we will not forget those seniors who dedicated their time to the program as well.

Graphic by Keyla Sosa