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Track and Field Preps for MAC Championships

Huskies look for strong end to season in Bowling Green.



Cora Caulfield needs just three more feet on her discus throw to earn an NCAA Regional berth.

May 14, 2008

DeKALB, Ill. - The culmination of Northern Illinois women's track and field team's season, the 2008 Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championships, begins Thursday in Bowling Green, Ohio, and run through Saturday.

As a team, the Huskies will look to improve upon last year's 11th-place finish, especially the six seniors, for whom this could be their final meet.

"The seniors are ready to step-up and put their mark on the board before they're out of here," head coach Connie Teaberry said.

Individually, several Huskies will vie for NCAA Regional qualifying marks.

Sophomore Cora Caulfield (Fox Lake, Ill./Grant) needs to bolster her career-best discus mark of 152-03 by less than three feet to reach the 155-02 qualifying length. Caulfield has improved her discus distance in all but one competition this season, something Teaberry attributes to confidence.

"With Cora, it's about confidence, and ever since she had the one big throw in the discus, she has never looked back," Teaberry said.

Huskie high jumpers Elizabeth Berquist (Toddville, Iowa/Alburnett) and Jessica Statler (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Cedar Rapids Prairie) are just inches away from earning a trip to the NCAA Regionals. To qualify, they must conquer a bar set to 5-08.75. Each has achieved the height before. Berquist hit the mark in 2003 during indoor competition, setting an NIU record. Statler also recorded Huskie history when she leapt 5-08.75 in April of 2007.

Though both have hit 5-07 in 2008, neither has been able to clear to the NCAA Qualifying mark in a season drowned by poor weather.

"In the high jump, coming at an angle, you have to be cautious with your plant foot," said Teaberry, who placed 15th in the event at the 1996 Olympics. "Every meet we've had it's been either raining or snowing, and that effects your ability to execute properly."

 

 

Teaberry added that she has faith both Statler and Berquist can clear the mark, even if conditions are less than ideal.

Conditions have been just that, less than ideal, all season for long and triple jumper Brittany Houghton (Freeport, Ill./Dakota) and Shoshanna Brown (Plainfield, Ill./Romeoville). With NIU's new track and field facility not ready to open until next year, both have practiced the entire year without landing pits. Still, both are roughly one foot away from qualifying for the NCAA Regional Championships.

"What Brittany and Shoshanna have been doing in the long and triple jump without a sand pit to practice in has been incredible," Teaberry said. "To overcome adversity and be successful are signs of great athletes."

Competition at the MAC Championships begins at 10 a.m. with the hammer throw.