Mustangs Begin Indoor Season With Solid Showing at Finals Week

DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Mount Mercy women's indoor track and field team competed Friday and Saturday at the Finals Week Invitational, hosted at the St. Ambrose Wellness and Recreation Center. The meet featured a flat 200-meter track and included multiple NAIA qualifying performances across sprints, middle-distance, distance, jumps, and throws. 

In the sprints, Gift Gonpue led the Mustangs in the 60 meters, finishing 10th in preliminaries at 8.36 seconds. Gonpue also placed sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 27.71 seconds, scoring five points. Skylar Palmgren added a third-place finish in the 400 meters, clocking 1:00.65 to score 10 points.

Mount Mercy recorded multiple scoring efforts in the middle-distance events. Catie Reittinger placed fifth in the 600 meters at 1:44.55, while Ashlie Kascel finished seventh at 1:46.08. In the 4x400 relay, the quartet of Brooklyn Johnson, Palmgren, Danielle Dimmings, and Reittinger placed second with a time of 4:14.12.

The Mustangs were consistent in the distance races. Abby Knepper placed second in the 3,000 meters at 10:26.02, followed by Kalin Rotzoll in third at 10:38.73. Maria Dudzik, Olivia Norrish, and Emma Althoff also posted finishes within the top eight to contribute additional points.

In the hurdles, Dimmings advanced from preliminaries and placed sixth in the 60 hurdles finals with a time of 13.31 seconds.

Mount Mercy found success in the field events, led by Carla Santos, who won the pole vault with a clearance of 3.00 meters. Johnson earned first place in the long jump at 5.46 meters and added a second-place finish in the triple jump at 10.33 meters. Gonpue placed third in the long jump at 5.30 meters.

The throws group produced several scoring marks. Kylie Smither placed third in the shot put at 11.66 meters, while Natalie DeFord finished fifth at 11.50 meters. In the weight throw, DeFord recorded a second-place mark of 14.53 meters, with Savannah Slobodnik finishing third at 13.32 meters and Smither placing fourth.

Mount Mercy finished second in the team standings with 119 points at the meet. St. Xavier claimed the team title with 144 points, while St. Ambrose placed third with 82. St. Francis (Ill.) finished fourth with 62 points, followed by Clarke with 52 and Culver-Stockton with 48.

Sauk Valley CC totaled 35 points for seventh, Grand View placed eighth with 15, and UNAT-Clarke rounded out the standings with four points.

The Mustangs will return to competition Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Chelsea Henkenius Invitational in Waverly, Iowa.