Forester Women Place Seventh, Men Ninth at MWC Championships

Forester Women Place Seventh, Men Ninth at MWC Championships

Despite competing in only running events, Lake Forest racked up 51 points at the Midwest Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at Grinnell College over the weekend. It was the program's highest total in three years of competing in the league.

Leading the way for the Foresters was Yaneli Guajardo, who followed up Friday's second-place finish in the mile with another runner-up performance and a time of 2:21.59 in Saturday's 800. The junior returned to the track a short while later and defended her title in the 3000, completing 15 laps around the track in 10:32.80 to shatter her own team record by more than 11 seconds.

Another school record to fall on Saturday was the mark in the women's distance medley, where freshman Madeline Morland, senior Lauren Giurini, junior Audrey Paglia, and freshman Anna Mollnhuber placed third at the meet with a time of 13:02.81, more than 22 seconds faster than the previous mark set in December.

Morland earned three more points for Lake Forest later in the day with a sixth-place finish in the 3000, which she completed in 10:46.86.

While Guajardo led the women in points, senior Philip Wilson accounted for a team-high 10 for the Forester men. After placing third in the 5000 on Friday, he was fifth in Saturday's 3000 with a career-best time of 8:56.27.

Lake Forest's final point of the day came in the final event, the women's 4x400 relay. Paglia, Giurini, Morland, and Guajardo finished eighth with a season-best time of 4:27.21.

Monmouth College's men and St. Norbert College's women won the meet while the other gender from each school finished second. The Forester women tallied 39 points to place seventh and the men were ninth with 12.

Lake Forest will conclude the indoor season at next Friday's Carthage College Final qualifier.