PRAIRIE FIRE INVITATIONAL -- February 7, Galesburg IL

Two school records and an NCAA automatic qualifier highlighted the Scots' effort at Knox. Chris Sondgeroth heaved the 35-pound weight a distance of 41'9" and on the track Heather Furrow set a new team mark at 800 meters (2:21.55). Dennis Staggs landed an NCAA spot by running 7.61 in the 55m hurdles and also won the 200 intermediates. Freshman Eric Holmes established a rookie record in the weight throw with a toss of 35'5" and Constance Jackson set a women's freshman mark with her time of :26.33 at 200 meters. Both Monmouth 4x200 relays posted the sixth-fastest times in school history and senior Carrie Knauer ran second at 5000m (19:36.16). Stephanie Owen was a winner in the 200m hurdles.

UW-OSHKOSH INVITATIONAL -- February 14, Oshkosh, WI

Monmouth traveled north to see some outstanding regional competition and returned with some terrific individual performances. Chris Sondgeroth, third at last year's NCAAs, won the shot put at 52'6" and Eric Holmes threw a freshman record 50'6", which also was a national meet provisional-qualifying distance, to place third. Tennille McClure increased her own school mark in the 20-pound weight throw to 38'3" as all four Fighting Scot women upped their season PRs in the event. The Scots' biggest highlight on the track came in the final event as Heather Furrow, Gretchen Vandergriff, Elise Estes and Constance Jackson teamed to break the indoor 4x400 relay record with a time of 4:08.81. Seniors Kathleen Yarger (19:39) and Rita McQuinn (20:04) each posted top-ten Monmouth team times at 5000m while Carrie Knauer (11:01.91) came within five seconds of her own indoor mark at 3000 meters. Dennis Staggs swept both hurdle races (55m highs and 200m IMs) and Furrow took the 400m in :59.88 for Monmouth's track victories.



UNI-DOME OPEN -- February 20, Cedar Falls, IA

A rare Friday night invitational at the University of Northern Iowa was highlighted by two new Monmouth women's team records and two NCAA qualifications in a meet featuring many Division I schools. Senior Stacy Brown clipped .06 off the old mark in the 55-meter dash and made the provisional standard with her finals time of 7.35 seconds and Heather Furrow ran an automatic time of 58.14 seconds in the 400 meters. Tennille McClure became the first Scot to throw 40 feet in the 20-pound weight with her effort of 40'5", Chris Sondgeroth threw the shot 54'4" (second-best all-time) and sophomore Aaron Walker upped his season-best in the pole vault to 13'0" to lead the Scots in the field events. Junior Gretchen Vandergriff posted the second-fastest indoor mile time in women's school history (5:27.47) while Brian Houzenga's 200m time of :22.41 was the fourth-fastest on the men's all-time list.

KNOX INVITATIONAL -- February 28, Galesburg, IL

Monmouth returned to the site of the 1998 indoor MWC Championships and scorched the Knox track with some outstanding efforts in preparation for their conference title defense. Heather Furrow (:57.37) and Brian Houzenga (:49.51) each won the 400 meters with NCAA-qualifying performances and ran on first-place 4x200 relays. The Monmouth men sizzled to a 1:30.79 clocking in the relay, the second-fastest in team history, and senior Jim Hardesty also moved into second on the all-time list with his 40'3" heave in the 35-pound weight. Eric Holmes upped his freshman weight record to 35'11" and Stephenie Schuler matched her freshman high jump record with another successful clearance at 5'4". Frank Schweda blew away the field at 1000 meters with a season-PR time of 2:35.81, the fastest time by an MWC runner this season, and Gretchen Vandergriff posted the fastest league time in the 600 meters with her winning effort of 1:40.13 (fourth-best all-time). Freshmen Justin Bryant (6.59, first place, 55m) and Cort Mills (6'4", third place, high jump) each made an immediate impact after completing the recent basketball season.

MWC INDOOR CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS -- March 6-7, Galesburg, IL

NCAA DIVISION III NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS -- March 13-14, Waltham, MA

Senior Heather Furrow and sophomore Brian Houzenga earned NCAA Indoor All-American honors by placing among the top six in the women's and men's 400 meters at Brandeis University. Furrow finished fourth with a finals time of 57.80 seconds to win her second indoor and seventh career Division III All-American award as the program's only female representative at the national meet. Houzenga made his first appearance in an NCAA finals race after posting the fourth-fastest prelim time. He placed sixth in a very tight 400m final with a time of 49.90 with less than a second separating all six runners. Seniors Dennis Staggs (55m high hurdles) and Chris Sondgeroth (shot put) also made the trip to Nationals but did not advance to the final round in their event. Staggs ran 7.72 in his prelim heat to barely miss the final by .01 seconds and finished eighth. Sondgeroth's best toss in the shot prelims of 52'2" placed him ninth.

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