Mar. 2—MANKATO — Bemidji State women's track and field team finished the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in 12th place, headlined by Sophie Rylance's win in the 1000-meter race. This is the first indoor NSIC title for a BSU individual since 2021.
Rylance has made this season her own, setting personal bests, school and facility records. This weekend was no different as the sophomore earned the Beavers' first individual conference event win since 2021. Rylance qualified for the 1000-meter run with a time of 3:03.28, then pushed to the front with a personal-best time of 2:55.85. This was the first time a Beaver has taken the title in the event.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWith the win, Rylance also earned All-NSIC honors. Freshman Jada Goeson also ran the 1000-meter, setting a personal best at 3:05.41 and finishing 12th in preliminaries. Maggie McCarthy rounded out the individual track efforts for BSU, finishing 19th in the 3000-meter with a season-best time of 10:31.37.
The Beavers' relay teams also had strong showings in Mankato. BSU's distance medley relay team of Jada Goeson, Amelia Congrove, Rylance and McCarthy finished fourth, grabbing the team four points with a time of 12:30.11. The 4x400-meter relay team of Congrove, Goeson, Rylance and senior Josie Aitken marked a season-best time of 4:07.19, taking 14th.
Trista Bilden led the Beavers' field efforts, finishing 13th in shot put with a distance of 12.41 meters. Redshirt junior Hannah Baker finished 15th with a distance of 15.56 meters in the weight throw. Over on the pole vault runway, Chloe Knott finished in 19th at a height of 3.16 meters.
Adding to the Beavers' accolades, Knott was named the NSIC's Indoor Track and Field Women's Elite 18 Outstanding Senior. The award is given to a senior with the highest cumulative GPA among those competing at the finals site for each of the NSIC's 18 championships. Knott, who is a senior academically and a sophomore athletically, has a perfect 4.00 GPA while majoring in biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology.
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