[Track & Field] Mustang men and women bring home nine MCC indoor titles

STERLING, Ill. -- Mount Mercy junior Jenna Higgins, freshman Tyler Hartley and junior Andre Moodie won multiple events and the Mustang men's and women's track & field teams brought home a total of nine titles from the Midwest Collegiate Conference Indoor Championships on Saturday.

Higgins shattered meet and school records while winning the 55 meter dash and 200 meter dash. She ran :07.34 in the preliminaries of the 55 meters and then blistered a :07.11 in the finals. Higgins also claimed the 200 meter title in :25.91 for the top time ever at the MCC indoor meet and fastest time in school history.

Juniors Larissa Wilden and Mwale Kapande also set meet and school records in the high jump and long jump. Wilden, already a national qualifier in the high jump, surpassed her own school mark while setting a meet standard with a leap of 5'-6 1/2". She was also third in the 55 meter hurdles in :08.70, setting a school record there as well.

Kapande, another NAIA national championships qualifier, had a long jump effort of 17'-11 1/2" to set both meet and school records. Senior Jacqueline Kane took the title in the 600 meter run in 1:39.52. The national meet qualifier also was runner-up in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:00.68.

On the men's side, Moodie was the 800 meter champion, crossing the finish line in 2:01.93. Hartley took the mile run crown in 4:36.58. Both helped relay teams win championships. Hartley and Moodie joined junior Blake Campbell and sophomore David Carbajal to claim the 4x800 meter relay title in 8:27.56, which set a meet record.

Hartley and Carbajal, along with sophomores Aaron Lacy and TJ Mosbach, helped Mount Mercy's distance medley relay team set a meet record of 11:14.53. Mosbach also ran second in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:20.86. Junior Nathan Stern set a school record while finishing runner-up in the shot put with a mark of 51'-1".

Grand View swept the team titles on Saturday, winning the women's championship with 181 points. Runner-up was St. Ambrose with 160 points, followed by Ashford (112.50), Mount Mercy (95), Clarke (67), Viterbo (Wis.) (43.50), William Penn (30) and Iowa Wesleyan (5). The Vikgins earned the men's crown with 207 points. Ashford was second with 174, then it was St. Ambrose (101), Mount Mercy (80), William Penn (67), Clarke (36), Iowa Wesleyan (26) and Viterbo (Wis.) (8).

Mount Mercy has one meet left before the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships, which are March 1-3 in Geneva, Ohio. The Mustangs will compete at the UNI-Dome Open on Friday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.