May 28, 2005

WAVERLY, IOWA . . . Wartburg College won its first-ever NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championship and became just the second Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) school to win an outdoor title as the host Knights captured the women’s Championship. IIAC student-athletes captured five individual National Championships as Wartburg seniors Missy Buttry and Josh Moen both won two titles and Central College senior high jumper Cale Van Genderen led a group of 25 individual All-Americans and four relay All-Americans from Conference schools.

Wartburg, which did not record a point during the first two days of competition, scored 43 on Saturday to claim its first women’s national title in any sport and the Iowa Conference’s first outdoor track and field national title since Central College won the 1982 women’s Championship. Defending National Champion University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and Calvin College finished tied for second, one point behind the Knights, and The College of New Jersey finished fourth with 41 points in the closest top-four finish in NCAA track history.

Buttry won the 1500-meter and 5000-meter runs to give her 12 career individual national titles (three cross country, six outdoor track and field, three indoor track and field) which ties her for third-most national titles in NCAA history (all sports, all divisions). Buttry won her third outdoor 1500 title in a time of 4:27.27 and her third outdoor 5K in a time of 16:11.90.

Moen won his second straight 5,000-meter (14:36.22) and earned All-American honors in the event for the third straight year (including a third-place finish in 2003). He also captured the 10,000-meters title, earning his second All-American honor in the event (seventh in 2003), finishing in a time of 30:31.45 on Thursday night.

Van Genderen added the outdoor high jump national title to the indoor title he won in March. His winning jump of 2.12 meters equaled the heights of the second and third-place finishers but Van Genderen won the tie-breaker based on fewest misses. The All-American honor is the fifth of his career in the event. In addition to his two national titles, he finished second at indoors in 2004, sixth in the 2004 outdoors and eighth in the 2003 outdoors.

In addition to Wartburg’s team championship, Luther College tied for 13th (22.0 points); Central and Loras College tied for 52nd (4.0); Simpson College tied for 64th (2.0) and Cornell College and Coe College tied for 67th (1.0).

On the men’s side, Wartburg was the highest finishing Iowa Conference school with a seventh-place finish (29.0 points). Loras tied for 14th (18.0), Central tied for 19th (14.0), the University of Dubuque finished 27th (9.0) and Simpson finished tied for 55th (2.0). Lincoln University won the team Championship with 69.0 points.

OTHER IOWA CONFERENCE ALL-AMERICANS (top-8 finishers)
MEN
Central’s 4x400 relay (DJ Cobler, Guy Dierikx, Justin Koeppe, Kevin Pitz) – 5th (3:12.49)
Dubuque’s DeAndre Bovan – 4th in triple jump (14.89m), third career All-American honor in triple jump
Dubuque’s 4x100 relay (Eddie Blackmon, Duanta Peterson, Darrell Walker, Gregg Wiersema) – 5th (41.03)
Loras’ Andy Stoecken – 2nd in high jump (2.12m), second straight All-American honor in high jump
Loras’ Geoff Kaiser – 5th in long jump (7.17m), second straight All-American honor in long jump; 4th in 400-hurdles (53.36)
Loras’ John Reilly – 8th in shot put (16.36m)
Simpson’s Ross Parker – 7th in shot put (16.46m)
Wartburg’s Josh Hauser – 3rd in 400-meters (47.28)
Wartburg’s 4x400 relay (Josh Hauser, Lucas Lenhart, Brian Schmitt, Scott Tjeerdsma) – 6th (3:12.86)

WOMEN
Central’s Alicia Whisner – 5th in javelin (42.37m), second straight All-American honor in javelin
Coe’s Jasmine Jones Green – 8th in heptathlon (4585 points)
Cornell’s Lynn Schneider – 8th in shot put (13.42m)
Loras’ Abby Vanderah – 7th in long jump (5.57m), second straight All-American honor in long jump
Loras’ Ellen Thys – 7th in javelin (40.78)
Luther’s Katie Pettigrew – 3rd in triple jump (11.98m), third career All-American honor in triple jump
Luther’s Natalie Retrum – 3rd in 10,000-meters (35:25.73); 3rd in 5000-meters (17:02.14)
Luther’s Jess Jewell – 5th in discus (43.40m)
Simpson’s Caroline Capper – 7th in hammer (50.55m)
Wartburg’s Heidi Porter – 3rd in 800-meters (2:13.68)
Wartburg’s Steph Arey – 3rd in 400-hurdles (62.37)
Wartburg’s 4x400 relay (Steph Arey, Bridget Burns, Amy Koester, Kelli Marlow) – 3rd (3:46.14); Burns & Arey’s second straight All-American honor in the 4x400 relay
Wartburg’s Bridget Burns – 4th in 400-meters (55.84)

OTHER IOWA CONFERENCE QUALIFIERS PERFORMANCES
MEN
Central’s Brad Rose – 3rd in heat of 110-hurdles (14.78)
Central’s 4x100 relay (DJ Cobler, Guy Dierikx, Justin Koeppe, Kevin Pitz) – 5th in heat (41.65)
Dubuque’s Basil Steele – 5th in heat of 110-hurdles (14.77)
Loras’ Geoff Kaiser – 9th in triple jump (14.45m)
Loras’ John Reilly – 5th in flight of discus (51.25m)
Simpson’s Matt Albert – 4th in heat of 400-hurdles (53.42)
Wartburg’s Josh Hauser – 4th in heat of 200-meters (22.05)

WOMEN
Buena Vista’s KeAnna Martin – 7th in heat of 100-meters (12.70)
Central’s Dana Wilkerson – 10th in heptathlon (4455 points)
Central’s Angie VanderLeest – t-11th in high jump (1.60m)
Central’s Beth Cunningham – 18th in 5000-meter (18:22.84)
Coe’s Jasmine Jones-Green – 5th in heat of 100-hurdles (14.63)
Cornell’s Heather Axen – t-12th in pole vault (3.37m)
Cornell’s Lynn Schneider – 9th in flight of javelin (33.97m)
Loras’ Whitney Calvert – 11th in pole vault (3.52m)
Loras’ Pam Orris – 4th in heat of 100-meters (12.21), 5th in heat of 200-meters (25.48)
Loras’ Dana Klemm – 9th in hammer (49.20m); 7th in flight of shot put (12.79m)
Loras’ Abby Vanderah – 7th in flight of triple jump (11.55m)
Loras’ Ellen Thys – 8th in flight of discus (39.27m)
Loras’ 4x100 relay (Abby Erion, Allison Evans, Pam Orris, Abby Vanderah) – 5th in heat (48.08)
Luther’s Emily Pankow – 17th in heptathlon (4216 points)
Luther’s Erin Dunham – 17th in 3,000 steeplechase (11:45.86)
Luther’s Jess Jewell – 8th in flight of shot put (12.36m)
Simpson’s Laura Hupp – 6th in flight of discus (38.04m)
Simpson’s Kelsey Hagerty – 6th in flight of javelin (38.13m)
Wartburg’s Lucy Joseph – 5th in heat of 100-hurdles (14.73)
Wartburg’s Kelsea Cannon – 5th in heat of 100-meters (12.62)
Wartburg’s Bridget Burns – 6th in heat of 200-meters (25.35)
Wartburg’s Jessica Bates – 6th in flight of shot put (12.92m)

Complete NCAA Championship results can be found on the Championship web site here.

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