Bees finish 16th at nationals, new program best
The St. Ambrose women have a new standard to reach for.
Finishing 16th at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships, the Bees improved on their previous best finish by two places.
SAU scored all of their points on Saturday, taking third and fifth in the race walk before finishing sixth in the 4x800 relay. Those 15 points were enough for the women to place 16th, an improvement from their 18th place finish two years ago.
It's the fifth straight indoor track and field meet the women have finished in the top 25.
On Saturday the Bees had several good performances but fell just shy of adding to their team total.
Brandi Hosford made finals in the triple jump for the second year in a row, but could not move up in finals. Her jump of 11.50m (37-9) was just 2cm less than what she jumped last year when she placed seventh.
Making her first appearance at nationals in the triple jump, sophomore Lauren Lamourt leapt to a personal best of 11.30m (37-1) to move from her 22nd place ranking all the way up to 15th.
Ashley Plumb was the Bees final competitor and she finished 11th in the mile run.
"This was a pretty good meet for our women," SAU head coach Dan Tomlin said. "We really performed well and unfortunately for us that didn't always add to our team score. Our team is at a different level right now though. They expect to be here at they expect to be on the podium. That's a good thing and we need to continue to build on that."
The meet marked the end of an incredible indoor season that saw the women win their first ever CCAC Track & Field Championship, Hosford was named CCAC Field Athlete of the Year and Tomlin took home both CCAC and USTFCCCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year Awards.