FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Heading into the final day of competition at the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championship, freshman Natasha Brown had broken the school record in the 60-meters four times already this season. She followed that up with another record-breaking performance, this time in the 200-meters, on Saturday at the Walkup Skydome to capture all-conference honors.
Brown, out of Edmonton, Alberta, snapped the school record in the 200 with a time of 24.00 seconds. As the only freshman running in the finals, she finished in second-place to earn the first all-conference distinction of her young career.
In the 60-meters finals, Brown placed sixth overall with a time of 7.55, just off her school-record time of 7.53, which she set in yesterday's preliminaries.
The women's 4x400 relay team also set a new school record today. The team of Courtney Heupel (Medina, N.D.), Paige Slemmons (Fargo, N.D.), Tianna McKinney (Roseville, Minn.), and Heather Harrower (Nederland, Colo.) placed fifth in the race with a time of 3 minutes, 48.15 seconds.
Combined with Brown's record in the 60 and senior Shawny Kramer's record in the weight throw yesterday, the UND women's track and field team set four new program bests this weekend.
“We had a great meet,” head coach Kevin Galbraith said afterward. “A lot of people stepped up and competed really well.”
Also of note, senior Rochelle Robb (Bull Bay, Jamaica) earned a fourth-place finish in the high jump with a mark of 05-06.54 (1.69).
Freshman Katelyn Weber (St. Clair, Minn.) came up with a big performance to lead UND in the shot put. She placed eighth with a throw of 12-04.82 (3.78). Junior Alyssa Lueck (Walworth, Wis.) and senior Chantel Urban (Surrey, N.D.) finished right behind her, in ninth and 10th respectively.
North Dakota placed ninth out of 12 teams with 34 team points. Sacramento State won the meet with 99.83 points, while Montana State was a very close second with 98.33. For UND, it was a step up over last year's 10th-place finish out of 11 teams.
“We're glad and excited about our improvement and we're going to keep rolling,” Galbraith said. “We're not going to settle for that; we're going to keep improving. To have so many freshmen score so well is really encouraging.”
Montana State's Carly McCutchen was named Most Outstanding Performer. Teammate Heather Demorest collected Most Valuable Athlete honors, earning 20 points for MSU.
UND returns to action in two weeks, when it opens the outdoor track and field season at the Coastal Carolina Invitational on March 13-14.
