The St. Ambrose indoor track and field teams headed over to Bourbonnais, Ill. to compete in the CCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Olivet Nazarene. The Fighting Bees put forth some great performances and both men's and women's squads had All-Conference performers by the end of the meet.

Women's Meet

The St. Ambrose women's team got off to a fast start on the track, with three Bees placing in the top-8. Megan Jansett finished in fourth (1:00.26), Gabbi Butler took sixth (1:02.62) and Jadie Knecht went seventh (1:03.45).

Jansett kept it going in the 200m dash, taking sixth-place (26.96) while Paige Crippes just behind in eighth (27.19). Karissa Koval placed sixth in the 600m run, crossing the finish line at 1:45.00. 

Leah Rose blizted to a time of 9.25 in the 60m-hurdles, finishing as conference runner-up and notching the second-fastest time in SAU school history in the event.

Emma Duncan, Koval, Christyna LaMantia, and Anna Pierce ran a time of 10:47.98 to place sixth in the 4x800m relay. In the 4x400m relay, the quartet of Jansett, Butler, Koval and Knecht ran a season-best time of 4:12.04 to wrap up the CCAC Championships on the track with silver medals.

Lexie Johnson had an all-conference performance in the long jump, taking third with a 5.14m jump. Abby Camp took fifth in the same event with a jump of 4.97m. Annah Miller and Sarah Smith both placed in the top-8 in the shot put, with Miller claiming fourth (12.38m) and Smith taking eighth (10.91m). Miller also placed in the weight throw, earning sixth-place with a 13.33m throw.

Madalyn Oltman earned a fifth-place finish in the pentathlon, finishing with 1943 points.

 The St. Ambrose women finished the CCAC Championships with 62 points to earn fifth-place overall. Host Olivet Nazarene were named conference champions, earning 293 points over the meet.

"I'm really proud of these women, they left it all on the track," said head coach Dan Tomlin. "We've got multiple All-Americans either didn't compete or are coming back from injury so we knew team scoring was going to be tough. The individual performances out there were really inspiring!"

Men's Meet

Will Reynolds got things started for the Bees on the track, placing seventh in the 60m dash (7.21) and sixth in the 200m dash (23.32), followed up by a sixth-place finish from Ben Wilson in the 400m dash (51.81).

The Bees had a great showing in the 60m hurdles, with three Bees placing in the top-8. Will Reemtsma earned a silver medal after crossing the finish line at 8.53. Will Kruse went fourth in the event (8.70) while Wilson went sixth (8.87).

Nolan Rudd had a great day at the CCAC Championships, placing top-4 in three events. Rudd got started with a fourth-place finish in the 1000m run (2:33.65) and then went runner-up in the 1 mile run with a time of 4:17.66, the second-fastest time in SAU school history. Lastly, Rudd went fourth in the 3000m run as well, hitting a time of 8:46.66.  George Barton placed sixth in the 3000m with a time fo 9:05.39. Matt Jung kept it going in the distance events, placing fourth in the 5000m run (16:12.21).

St. Ambrose earned all-conference honors in both relays. In the 4x400m relay, with Wilson, Reemtsma, Jonny Swarm, and Justin Wright crossing the finish line at 3:28.48 to place third while Tommy Ashby, Nathan Boleyn, Kale Cartee and Elijah Boesch ran a 8:24.61 to place third, as well.

Isaac Mojica and Simon Hollan went seventh and eighth in the high jump, respectively, after clearing 1.71m. Sam Rush was all-conference in the pole vault after clearing 4.50m to finish runner-up. Jacob Rossmiller went fourth in the pole vault (J3.90m), Mojica earned fifth (3.60m) and Keagan Anderson (3.30m).

Freshman jumper Teagan Bowers earned all-conference honors for a second-place finish in the triple jump (13.46m), while additionally placing fourth in the long jump (6.54m). Wright placed sixth in the triple (12.89m) and seventh in the long jump (6.20m).

St. Ambrose dominated the shot put event. The Bees went 1-2 in the event, with Mick Saloninas finishing as the conference champion (16.50m) and Jonah Wilson as the runner-up (14.58m). Alec Seifert placed fourth (14.23m) and Bryce Peacher placed sixth (13.86m).

Another St. Ambrose all-conference performer came in the weight throw, with Payton Woods launching a 14.82m throw to place second. Hunter Kasap placed seventh (13.82m) and Saloninas went eighth (13.50m).

Cody Thole earned all-conference in the hepathlon with 4116 points to place second. Marquan Quinn placed fifth in the multi with 3287 points.

The Fighting Bee men earned third place at the CCAC Indoor Championships with 157 points. St. Francis (Ill.) was named conference champion on the men's side with 218 points.

"These guys had a great meet. It's the closest we've been to winning an indoor conference team title in five years so we're definitely trending in the right direction." said Tomlin. "Losing an All-American mid-meet really hurts (Reemtsma was too sick to finish the meet) but we had guys step in and step up in big ways. It was really a solid team out there this weekend and I'm really proud of them."

The NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships will be held March 3-5 in Brookings, S.D.