READING, PA.– Eastern University Women's Track and Field Scored a at least a point in every Saturday event and held off a late charge from the Messiah College Falcons to claim the programs first MAC Championship. Nicole Weenink set a meet record in the Triple Jump and earned MAC Field Performer of the Meet Honors for the second year in a row.

How it Happened:
Weenink's win in the Triple Jump proved to be the only gold medal of the day for the team. She hit a strong 11.62 jump on her opening effort and fouled a huge effort on her second jump. She was sitting with a comfortable two-foot lead going to finals and she improved to 11.67meters on her first jump of finals. After a consult with jumps coach Fallon Heddings, Weenink hit another big jump that was just over the board on the fifth. Her 12.07 effort on her final attempt is better than all but one competitor nationally this year. There were only three 12 meter jumps in the nation heading into this weekend.

The ten points in the Triple Jump gave the Eagles a little breathing room from Messiah and closed the gap on Misericordia, but the big story of the day came from the depth of the team. While Weenink finished third in the 60 Meter Hurdles, fourth in the 60 Meter Dash, and fifth in 200 Meter Dash, the rest of the Eagles each made their points where they could.

Courtney Moyer finished just ahead of Weenink to earn bronze in the 60 Meter Dash with a new program record of 8.02 seconds.

Knowing that Messiah had several big point accumulators on day two, every potential point was huge. Heading into the meet, the coaching staff and the team decided that a championship was within grasp and that the strategy for the meet was to maximize total points. Nowhere was this more evident than in the distance group with the Bernotas sisters. Each of the three made sacrifices to see the team win.

That started on Friday when Megan Bernotas and Mary Bernotas stepped away from a gold medal opportunity in the DMR to gather up 9 points in the 5,000 meters. The final margin in the Championships turned out to be 7.5 points. The Eagles won the DMR and wound up nine points ahead of where they would have been with the same DMR line-up that won in 2019.

Megan bounced back to take fifth in the Mile and lead off the silver medal 4 x 800 Relay. She and Katelyn teamed with Pamela Myers and Emily Byrnes to claim a critical eight points. Mary was slated to be on that 4 x 800 team, but after taking third in the mile and eighth in the 3,000 Meters. She and Distance Coach Tom Kennedy conferred and agreed that Myers, a senior captain, could get the Eagles where they needed to be and that a fresh Myers was a safer bet than trying ot bounce back after three strenuous events.

Katelyn anchored three relays. She won gold on Friday night in the DMR with a really solid mile and took a pair of silvers in the 4 x 800 and the 4 x 400, the final two running events of the meet. She also finished second in both the Mile and the 800 Meters with really solid times. With the two important relays at the end, she passed up a chance to hunt a national mark by trying to beat Messiah's Esther Seeland head-to-head. Byrnes came along with a bronze medal finish in the open 800. With her two relays, she finished the meet with one of each medals for her three 800 Meter races.

The Eagles passed Misericordia once the Mile posted and were sitting ahead of Messiah for much of the day, but the margin was not safe until after Joelle Wash and Cara Fordenbacher secured five points in the Pentathlon. Wash also grabbed a single point with an eighth-place finish in the Shot Put. The Eagles led by 11.5 points with the two relays left. Katelyn got the baton slightly ahead of Seeland in the 4 x 800, but when the Outdoor National Champion in the open 800 made a move early, Bernotas let her go and held the important eight points and kept energy for her final race.

Up 9.5 points heading to the 4 x 400, the meet was all but secure. The Eagles needed to get around the track eight times without losing a baton to earn a point. Tara Ford, Rayven Rouse, and Cecilia Jones did better than that. The Eagles gave the Falcons, who came in with the top seed, all they could handle. Ford finished seventh in the open 400 and ran a strong opening leg. Rouse had already picked up a silver in the 4 x 200 last night and scored a single point from an early heat in the 200. She gave the baton to Jones with a small lead. Jones had run right at a minute to take fourth in the open 400. She turned a phenomenal third leg to give the baton to Bernotas with a ten-step lead. Messiah sophomore Elissa Slader, who finished second in the open 400, had just enough to get past Bernotas at the tape, but the second place finish set off a celebration.

While the day had many success stories, the turning point point of the day might have been in the High Jump. Caitlin Newport had struggled with injury for much of the season and had been stuck slightly below her 1.53 meter PR with a bunch of 1.50 meter jumps. That had her right at the cutoff for points in the event.

With many teammates watching, Newport cleared her first two heights to move into the top eight. When she hit 1.50 on her first attempt, more teammates were watching. She missed her first two attempts at 1.53, but when she cleared it on her third, the crowd of Eastern athletes grew around the pit. She cleared both 1.56 and 1.59 on her first attempt to move into a tie for third and claim a big five and a half points. As part of the swing, she finished in front of Taylor Weiderrecht, Messiah's top jumper and a national qualifier in the event. Aware of the strength of the Eastern challenge, the Messiah Coaches had put their star pentathlete into multiple individual events, and she was unable to get to her seed mark in the High Jump.

That swing happened just before the finish of the Pentathlon.

Eastern finished third in the Indoor Championships with 114.83 points last year. In 2018 the team was fifth with 79.5 points and in 2017, they were 6th with 45 points. The program started competing in 2016. The Eagles scored 14 points that year. The Eagles scored one point more than the total amassed by Misericordia last year. Messiah actually scored 2/3rds of a point more this year than last year. Those totals are more impressive given the addition of a strong Stevens Institute of Technology team that won three events and claimed 76 points.

Head Coach Jason Falvo was named Coach of the Year.

Coach Falvo Says:
"When we saw the entries, we knew Messiah was going for it and that we would need to get every point we could. We asked a lot of Nicole and Bernotas times three, and they showed up, but we could not have done this without the whole team. We got great efforts across the board. Newport just killed it. I was confident she would score, and the High Jump is a volatile event, but for her to rise up to the challenge like she did is awesome. It was great to see the team response to that as well."

"I walked into a situation with two great assistants and a team that is hungry and talented. It is a credit to them, They bought into what we asked them to do. We laid out the plan, and the team responded. Not everything we tried resulted in points, but I think they all saw the big picture and went for it. Next weekend will be a great chance for a couple athletes to go after national marks and see if we can qualify. I am really thrilled for the whole program, but especially the seniors. They have laid the foundation for future years of the program.  Their commitment to the program and will to move the program forward each day by their work ethic will never be forgotten.  Not only are they great athletes  but they are great people.  As we move forward to our region meet and National meet, I know their leadership will take us to new heights.  I'm so thankful, God is good!"

Up Next:
Several Individuals have qualified to compete at the AARTFC Indoor Regional meet in Rochester. With qualifying standards and a fast surface, it will serve as a chance to hit national qualifying. The top 20 individuals who declare in each event qualify for the National Championships.