STORM LAKE, IOWA . . . Central College captured its first men’s title, while Wartburg College remained the only school to win a women’s team title as the 2010 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships wrapped up Saturday at Lamberti Recreation Center on the campus of Buena Vista University.

The Central men totaled a meet-record 213.83 points to outdistance runner-up and defending Conference champion Wartburg by 61.83 points. The Knights held the previous top team score with their 200.5 total at the 2006 Championship. The Wartburg women amassed 242 points, well short of the record total of 276 the squad amassed at the 2009 Championship. They defeated runner-up Simpson by 137 points.

Final Team Standings

Most Valuable Performers: Central sophomore Ethan Miller and Wartburg sophomore Skye Morrison were named Conference Most Valuable Performers. Miller scored 40.5 points for the Dutch with wins in the pentathlon (3,713 points), high jump (6-5), and long jump (23-0 ¾), a third-place finish in the triple jump (42-2 ¼), and a tie for fourth in the pole vault (12-11 ½). Miller automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with his pentathlon point total, provisionally qualified for the long jump with his open performance and added an NCAA provisional effort in the high jump portion of the pentathlon.

Morrison won both the triple jump and long jump in IIAC-record-breaking fashion, shattering the old long jump record (18-3 ¾) by more than a foot with a 19-7 leap. She also set a new Conference mark in the triple jump with an effort of 38-1 ¼. She also finished third in the 200 (25.76) and ran on Wartburg’s winning 4x200-meter relay (1:41.91).

Miller is the second Central male student-athlete to receive IIAC indoor track and field honors, joining Guy Dierikx (2008), while Morrison is the third Wartburg woman to receive the award after Missy Buttry (2003, 2005) and Hannah Baker (2008).

Eleven Records Broken: A eleven of twelve Iowa Conference indoor records fell at the 2010 Championship. In addition to Morrison’s efforts in the long and triple jumps, Miller shattered the pentathlon record set last year by James Wohrley. Miller’s total of 3,713 points bettered Wohrley’s mark (3,287) by over four hundred points. Wartburg’s Faith Burt staked her claim as the Iowa Conference’s fastest woman indoors, sweeping the 55- and 200-meter dashes and breaking her own records in the process. Her 7.13-second clocking in the 55 prelims bettered her mark of 7.16 set last season, while her 200 time of 25.37 broke the mark of 25.57 she held with KeAnna Martin. Teammate Anna Kraayenbrink knocked over five seconds off the IIAC record in the 3,000-meter run, dropping it from the 10:15.62 standard set by Central’s Beth Cunningham in 2005 to 10:10.44. Wartburg also set records in the relays, winning the 4x400 (3:57.44) and 4x800 (9:20.53) in IIAC-record time.

Coe’s Krystal Jackson set the record in the high jump with a 5-5 ¼ leap, while Simpson’s Kinsey Bak scored 3,315 points to break the record of 3,111 set by Brittany Melloy at the 2009 Championships. Central’s Matt Graber shattered the men’s shot put record by over 10 inches with his 53-10 ¼ effort.

Dunham & Newsom Named Coaches of the Year: Central’s Joe Dunham and Wartburg’s Marcus Newsom were named Conference men’s and women’s Coach of the Year, respectively. Dunham was honored for the first time after leading the Dutch to their first indoor team title. Newsom was named women’s Coach of the Year for the seventh time in eight years for leading the Knights to their eighth straight title.

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 12-13 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.

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