Jack Hoover
CONTRIBUTOR
For many seniors on the Omaha Indoor Track and Field team, some of the best performances of their career were saved for last.
During the Summit League championships, held on February 22nd and February 23rd, the Omaha Maverick team finished 8th overall in the standings. However, the weekend served to highlight some of the personal best performances by a number of Omaha athletes, many of which were set by seniors who were competing in one of their last meets. In one such instance, a new school record was even set.
This new record was set by senior Anna Edet in the weight throw competition on the first day of the championship. Edet’s throw of 59 feet and 7.25 inches was the best she’d ever done, and also stood as a new school record. Overall, the throw was good enough for eighth place in the competition.
In other events, senior Lauren Houston ran a personal best in the 800, with a time of 2:14.52. Overall, Houston finished in seventh place.
However, perhaps the biggest story of the weekend was Stephanie Ahrens performance in the high jump competition. Earlier in the season, Ahrens had already made headlines for breaking the Omaha high jump record with a jump of 6 feet and half of an inch. The previous record had been set by Ahrens when she was a freshman.
“To come back as fifth-year senior and break my initial record was just unreal,” Ahrens said about her jump.
In the Summit League championship, she didn’t quite get up to that same height. However, her jump of five feet and eight and a half inches was enough to bring home the gold in the event. For the second straight year, Ahrens was the indoor women’s high jump champion. For Ahrens, this will be one of the last meets in a distinguished career.
Before the Summit League championship, Ahrens talked about what this meet means to her.
“I have to go out and give it everything I have. These are meets that I’m always going to look back on at the end of my season.”
Now, Ahrens can look back on her career as a two-time Summit League champion.
Overall in the team standings, the Mavericks eighth place finish fell short of where they were last year. The previous season had seen Omaha claim sixth place. Overall, it was the North Dakota State Bison who won the women’s track and field event for the 12th straight year.
Omaha track and field will now be gearing up for the outdoor season which begins on March 29 at the Jim Duncan Invitational in Des Moines.
