COMMUNITY JOURNALISM: Are Knights the best ever?

Editor's note: Nathan Ford of Grinnell is freshman at Wartburg College, where he is sports editor for the Wartburg Trumpet, co-sports director at KWAR and a staff member for Wartburg Television.

By Nathan Ford, community contributor

WAVERLY - Wartburg assistant track and field coach Steve Johnson calls himself a “numbers guy.”

Johnson knew the 2012 Wartburg women's track and field team was pretty special, so he went into the record books to prove it.

In 2011, Wisconsin-Oshkosh scored 46.5 points and won the NCAA Division III indoor championship. In 2012, the Titans scored 48 points and got second - by 51 points. Wartburg scored 99 points, breaking the record by an astounding 33.5 points.

“This is the best Division III women's track and field team ever,” Johnson said. “We know this weeks before the outdoor national championships.”

Wisconsin-Oshkosh Coach Patrick Ebel agrees with Johnson's claim.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “By far.”

If you are looking for more proof, compare the No. 1-ranked Knights to the No. 2-ranked Titans this outdoor season. Wartburg has posted nation-leading performances in seven events - Nevada Morrison in the 400 dash, Laura Sigmund in the 5,000 run, Alana Enabnit in the 10,000, Skye Morrison in the triple jump and the 400 and 1,600 relay teams.

Oshkosh has one No. 1.

Even more convincing, Wartburg has 37 competitors ranked in the top 50 in the nation. UW-Oshkosh has 23.

Johnson knows this is the key to success.

“They've got a couple superstars,” he said. “They'll score points. We'll score points in almost every event.”

At the Drake Relays last month - an event that features a variety of Division I, II and III schools - the Knights finished in the top 17 in 14 events. Sigmund and Enabnit placed second and third, respectively, in the 5,000 run. Skye Morrison took second in the long jump, ahead of competitors from Florida, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Illinois and Utah.

Johnson said 1,600 and sprint medley relay teams had times that would have qualified for the Division I final.

A school of 1,600 students that does not offer athletics scholarships is competing with and beating teams with more than 3,000 students. That's unheard of in most sports.

“I've had a lot of coaches the past couple weeks who have approached me that are associated with not just Division III institutions but Division II and Division I institutions who are watching very closely at what our women are accomplishing,” Coach Marcus Newsom said.

Wartburg's times this year are better than those from every previous year in Division III. The Knights broke into the all-time Division III top-10 in five events at the Drake Relays.

“I just couldn't sleep,” Johnson said after the Drake Relays. “This is the best team. We beat Division III teams in every single event. Some of ours were even ‘B' teams.”

Oshkosh's Ebel said Division III schools are getting a different breed of athlete.

“We're getting a lot of good student-athletes that might have gone to Division I in years past that want a good education along with a good athletic experience,” he said. “At Division III, they can truly be a student athlete.”

Despite winning the Iowa Conference title with a record 353 points last week - winning 15 of the 22 events - and Johnson's overwhelming evidence, Wartburg will have to prove those numbers aren't lying at the NCAA Championships next week. The three-day meet begins May 24 in Claremont, Calif.

“I'm very overwhelmed, very grateful and very thankful that we have such a special group of women who are really all on track to do something extremely special here the next two weeks,” Newsom said.

“We have a nice team at Oshkosh this year but I think right now Wartburg is going to be very, very tough to beat,” Ebel said.

Johnson could not be more confident.

“We could run a dual meet against any team, anywhere and we'd win,” he said. “There may not be another team like this again.”