Mar. 14, 2008

By Zach Stipe

ADA — With one individual championship and a runner-up finish already under its belt, St. Thomas sits atop the standings with 18 points after Day 1 of the NCAA III Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday at the ONU Sports Center.

Wisconsin-La Crosse finished 1-3 in the long jump and sits in second-place with 16 points.

St. Thomas senior Carol Comp won the 20-pound weight throw with a toss of 56-10, while the St. Thomas team of Kelly Russ, Nikki Arola, Erin Sprangers, Katie Theisen finished less than two seconds behind Tufts in the distance medley relay.

The Tufts relay of freshman Stephanie McNamara and seniors Katy O’Brien, Kaleigh Fitzpatrick and Catherine Beck led wire-to-wire and finished with a time of 11:46.79 to edge St. Thomas (11:48.10) and set an ONU Sports Center record.

O’Brien, Fitzpatrick and Beck returned from the team that finished runner-up in the DMR at the 2007 Indoor Championships.

Wisconsin-La Crosse junior Caitlin Schetter captured the long jump title with a leap of 19-2.75. Schetter earned All-American in the event for the second consecutive year after finishing eighth in the event a year ago.

Schetter's teammate junior Katie Fondow was third (18-4.5) in the long jump for the second straight year.

Keene State senior Crystal Blamy was nearly perfect en route to a first-place finish in the women’s high jump, breezing through the first four height's before battling Richard Stockton sophomore Lisa Shepherd for the title at 5-7.75. Blamy cleared on her second attempt to win the high jump with a NCAA III season-best height.

Field event prelims and finals begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, while the running event finals start at 2:30 p.m.