2015 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships Results

Winston-Salem, N.C. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's track & field team captured its first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Indoor title Saturday at the JDL Fast Track.  The Eagles won the national title with 55.0 team points while UW-Oshkosh placed second with 49.0 and Illinois Wesleyan University third with 39.0.  UW-Eau Claire and Massachusetts Institute of Technology tied for fourth with 34.0 points.

UW-Whitewater was sixth (27.0 points) followed by Lehman College, N.Y. (26.0), Buffalo State University, N.Y. (25.0), Stevens Institute of Technology, N.J. (23.0) and Middlebury College, Vt. (22.0) to round-out the top-10.  A total of 67 teams scored points.

It is the first national crown for UW-L head coach Pat Healy.  He has guided the Eagles to five second-place finishes (1993, 1999, 2001, 2009, 2014) at the indoor championships.  UW-L has finished in the top-five in 16 of the last 33 championships in indoor and outdoor track & field under Healy, who has also guided the Eagles to 31 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) titles (15 indoor; 16 outdoor).

In Saturday's action, UW-L's Bria Halama captured her second straight national title in the triple jump (school record 40-9 1/2), becoming the seventh student-athlete in NCAA III history to win at least two consecutive crowns in the event.  Halama broke her own school (40-1 1/2) set in 2014.  She is the only student-athlete in UW-L history to secure the triple jump title. 

UW-L also took its third consecutive 4x400-meter relay (3:49.89) Saturday with Claire Gordee, Kaitlyn Francour, Halama and Shannon Klein.  Halama and Klein were members of UW-L's national champion 4x400-meter relay in 2014 while Klein was also on the first-place 4x400-meter relay in 2013.

With her two NCAA III All-America honors at this year's championships, Halama now has five career indoor recognitions.  Along with the triple jump and 4x400-meter relay titles in 2014 and 2015, Halama was fifth in the 400-meter dash in 2014.  Klein has three career NCAA III All-America honors with the three national crowns in the 4x400-meter relay.  Francour earned her first career indoor All-America award.

The Eagles' Meg Heafy placed second (school record 24.72) in the 200-meter dash Saturday to pick up her first career indoor All-America honor.  She broke her own school record (24.93) set in Friday's preliminaries.

Gordee, Jaime Ludwigson and Addie Korb each earned NCAA III All-America honors in the 60-meter hurdles Saturday.  Gordee placed third (8.55) while Ludwigson was fifth (8.72) and Korb sixth (8.73).  Gordee broke her own school record (8.63) set in Friday's preliminaries.

With her two All-America awards Saturday, Gordee now has three in her career.  She was on UW-L's third-place distance medley relay in 2014.  Ludwigson earned her sixth career indoor All-America accolade with the fifth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles.  She placed third in the 60-meter hurdles, fourth in the triple jump and eighth in the 200-meter dash in 2014 while finishing seventh in the 60-meter dash in 2013 and 2014.  Korb earned her first career NCAA III indoor honor Saturday.

The Eagles' Bailey Alston earned her second All-America honor of this year's championships with a seventh-place finish (38-4 1/4) in the triple jump Saturday.  She finished fifth (18-2 1/4) in Friday's long jump.  Alston has earned four career NCAA III Indoor All-America honors, including this year's triple jump finish and three awards in the long jump (fourth in 2013; second in 2014 and fifth in 2015).

UW-L's Laura Mead earned a pair of All-America honors at this year's championships, placing fifth in the 3,000 and 5,000-meter run.  She set a UW-L record in the 3,000-meter run (9:50.82), breaking Julia Rudd's record time (9:51.41) set in 2006.  Mead also earned NCAA III All-America honors in the 5,000-meter run held Friday.  No times were recorded due to a lap counting error and team points were based on where leaders began stopping at 4,800-meters.  Mead now has three career indoor All-America honors after being a member of UW-L's third-place distance medley relay in 2014.

Kendra Antony finished 16th (42-2 1/4) in the shot put Saturday.

UW-L opens its 2015 outdoor season Friday, April 3 hosting the Ashton May Invitational starting at 3 p.m. at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.