March 12, 2005

BLOOMINGTON, ILL. . . . Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) qualifiers captured national titles in five events at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships, and 26 of the 31 IIAC individual qualifiers came away with All-American honors (top-8 finish) at the Meet held at Illinois Wesleyan University on March 11-12.

Central’s Cale VanGenderen (high jump), Dubuque’s Basil Steele (55-meter hurdles), Wartburg’s Bridget Burns (400-meter dash), Missy Buttry (mile run) and distance medley relay team (of Lindsay Albertsen, Buttry, Heidi Porter and Jill Wagaman) all captured national titles.

VanGenderen, the high jump runner-up at the 2004 National Championship, won the event this year with a jump of 6-11. Steele took home his third straight national title in the 55-meter hurdles, running a time of 7.43 seconds.

Burns won the 400-meter dash title in a time of 56.68 seconds while teammate Buttry captured her 12th career national title winning the mile in a Championship Meet record time of 4:43.92. She was the 1500-meter National Champion in 2002 and 2003 and has five total indoor track titles to go along with three cross country titles and four outdoor track titles.

Wartburg’s distance medley relay team won the school’s second national title in the event in three years. Their time of 11:41.66 tied the national meet record set by the 2003 Wartburg DMR team.

Behind its three national champions, Wartburg finished second in the women’s team race with 32 points, just four points behind the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh which took home its second straight team title. Loras also finished in the top-10 of women’s team race, tying Washington (Mo.) University for ninth with 16 points. Luther finished tied for 28th with seven points and Cornell tied for 31st with six points.

On the men’s side, three IIAC schools finished in the top-15 – Dubuque was 12th with 14 points, Loras was 14th with 11.5 points and Central tied for 15th with 10 points. Wartburg tied for 43rd with three points. The University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse won its fifth straight men’s championship with 53 points.

In addition to above listed National Champions, other IIAC performers earning All-American honors include:

WOMEN’S ALL-AMERICANS
Loras’ Dana Klemm – 2nd in shot put (47-7.25)
Cornell’s Lynn Schneider – 3rd in shot put (46-5.5)
Luther’s Natalie Retrum – 3rd in 5000-meter run (17:19.21)
Loras’ Pam Orris – 4th in 55-meter dash (7.18)
Loras’ Whitney Calvert – 6th in pole vault (11-3.75)
Wartburg’s 4x400 relay (Steph Arey, Bridget Burns, Amy Koester, Ashley Williams) – 7th (3:58.92), fourth straight Wartburg 4x400 relay All-American honor
Luther’s Katie Pettigrew – 8th in triple jump (37-10), second straight All-American honor in triple jump

MEN’S ALL-AMERICANS
Loras’ Andy Stoecken – t-3rd in high jump (6-8.75), second straight All-American honor in high jump
Loras’ Geoff Kaiser – 4th in long jump (23-2.75)
Dubuque’s DeAndre Bovan – 5th in triple jump (47-4.5), third straight All-American honor in triple jump
Wartburg’s Josh Moen – 6th in 5000-meter run (14:40.18), third straight All-American honor in 5000-meter
Loras’ 4x400 relay (Kyle Brinkman, James Croker, Geoff Kaiser, Derek Schroeder) – 8th (3:21.39)

OTHER WOMEN’S NATIONAL QUALIFIERS
Wartburg’s Jessica Bates – 13th in preliminaries of weight throw (46-7.25)
Coe’s Jasmine Jones-Green – 14th in preliminaries of 55-meter hurdles (8.78)

OTHER MEN’S NATIONAL QUALIFIERS
Loras’ John Reilly – 10th in shot put (50-7.5)
Luther’s Tyler Sherden – 10th in preliminaries of 400-meter dash (49.56)
Loras’ Geoff Kaiser – 12th in preliminaries of triple jump (46-2)

Complete National Championship results, notes and recaps can be found on the Championship website.

In conjunction with the Championship, the United States Track and Field Coaches Association (USTCA) announced its regional and national awards at the annual pre-Championship banquet on Thursday, March 10. Wartburg senior Missy Buttry (Shenandoah, Iowa/Shenandoah) was named USTCA Central Region and National Female Athlete of the Year for the third straight year and Central senior Cale VanGenderen (Lynnville, Iowa/Lynnville-Sully) was named USTCA Central Region Male Athlete of the Year. Wartburg coach Marcus Newsom was named the USTCA Central Region and National Women’s Coach of the Year for the second straight year.

-30-