March 1, 2008

DECORAH, IOWA . . . The Wartburg College men and women won the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) indoor track and field Championships hosted by Luther College on Friday and Saturday. The Knights captured their fifth IIAC men's title in six years, while the women's team has won women’s indoor track titles all six years the Conference has sponsored the Championship.

Wartburg totaled 150.5 points, 32.5 better than runner-up and defending champion Loras. Loras totaled 178.5 points, four points better than runner-up Wartburg. The 150.5 points is the lowest point total for a Conference Champion.

The Wartburg women amassed 259 points, three shy of the meet record set at last year's Championships. They defeated runner-up Simpson by 148 2/3 points, setting a record for margin of victory. The previous high margin of victory was set in 2006 when Wartburg won by 127 points.

Final Team Standings

	Women				Men
1st	Wartburg	259.0		1st	Wartburg	150.5
2nd	Simpson	110.33		2nd	Loras	118.0
3rd	Luther	83.0		3rd	Central	108.5
4th	Central	72.83		4th	Simpson	62.0
5th	Loras	70.33		5th	Dubuque	61.0
6th	Coe	37.0		6th	Buena Vista	60.0
7th	Cornell	33.0		7th	Coe	59.0
8th	Dubuque	25.0		8th	Luther	49.0
9th	Buena Vista	10.5		9th	Cornell	34.0

Most Valuable Performers: Central senior Guy Dierikx and Wartburg sophomore Hannah Baker were named Conference Most Valuable Performers. Dierikx scored 38 points for the Dutch with one individual and two relay titles and a runner-up individual finish. He won the 400-meter dash (48.74) with a meet and NCAA provisional qualifying mark and finished second in the 200-meter dash (22.53). He also ran the opening leg of Friday's winning 4x200-meter relay (1:30.58) and the anchor leg of Satuday's winning 4x400-meter relay (3:25.11).

Baker won the 200-meter dash, the 400-meter dash, and the long jump. She set a Conference record and surpassed the NCAA provisional qualifying standard in the 400 with a time of 57.06 seconds. She won the 200 with a time of 25.90, edging teammate KeAnna Martin by 0.02 seconds, and captured the long jump with a leap of 5.30 meters.

Dierikx is the first Central student-athlete to receive IIAC indoor track and field MVP honors, while Baker is one of two Wartburg women to receive the award, joining Missy Buttry (2003, 2005).

National Qualifying Performances: Buena Vista's Eric Bertelsen automatically qualified for the 2008 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships with his performance in the long jump (7.27 meters), while Loras' Liz Ulferts, and Wartburg's Jessica Bates each posted AQ marks in the weight throw. Ulferts, who had previously AQ'd in the event, captured the conference title with a season-best throw of 17.71 meters. Bates took second with a 17.13 meter effort. In addition to the automatic qualifiers, NCAA provisional qualifying marks were met 26 times including 16 women and 10 men.

Seven Records Broken, Two New Records Established: A total of seven new Iowa Conference indoor records fell at the 2008 Championship. Dierikx ran a time of 48.74 seconds in the 400-meter dash, breaking the Conference record of 49.00 set in 2005 by Luther's Tyler Sherden. Bertelsen's mark of 7.27 meters in the long jump erased the mark shared by Geoff Kaiser and Victor Jones, both of Loras. Simpson's Eric Patten ran a time of 1:54.69 in the 800-meter run, breaking the mark of 1:55.46 set in 2006 by Luther's Erik Bies. Loras' Nick McWilliams won the weight throw with a heave of 16.52 meters, topping the mark of 16.43 meters set by Central's Jon Robeson last year. Also, Wartburg's distance medley relay (of Andy Hodge, Derek Peth, Jake Hommer, and Kevin Balster) posted a time of 10:01.66, bettering the mark of 10:09.06 set by the Knights at last year's meet.

On the women's side, Baker's time of 57.06 seconds in the 400-meter dash broke the Conference record of 57.44 set in 2005 by Wartburg's Bridget Burns. Ulferts' effort in the weight throw displaced the mark of 17.28 meters set last season by Loras' Dana Klemm.

In addition, the Loras men's 4x800 relay of Ray Orris, Mark Sulkin, Alex Eischeid, and Cody Dreyer and the Simpson women's 4x800 relay of Sarah Hammel, Kelli Hildreth, Emily Salberg, and Catie Ellingson entered the IIAC record books with their winning times. The Loras quartet posted a time of 8:03.62, edging Central (8:03.63) at the line, while the Simpson team won with a time of 9:36.76. This is the first season that the 4x800 relay has been contested at the IIAC Championships.

Cleveland & Newsom Named Coaches of the Year: Wartburg’s Marcus Newsom and Simpson's Dave Cleveland were named Conference men’s and women’s Coach of the Year, respectively. Newsom was named men’s track and field Coach of the Year for the third time in six season after leading the Knights to their fifth title in six year. Cleveland led the Storm to a runner-up finish, setting a school record for points at the IIAC meet. It is Simpson's best overall finish at the Conference indoor meet, bettering the previous best finish of fifth place each of the past two years.

Complete IIAC Championship results are here. The top-three finishers in each event, including all members of the top-three finishing relay teams, are recognized as All-Conference.

The NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field National Championships are March 14-15 at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio.

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