This weekend’s Midwest Conference Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships will go down as one of the best in Cornell history.
The evidence is in the 14 all-conference performances and seven event champions over two days.
Natalie McAllister grabbed her third individual title of the meet, Madison Osborn claimed her first career MWC crown in the 100 and newcomer Ava Claussen-Tubbs won the 800, capping a whale of a weekend for coach Jerry Monner’s Rams at Darren Young Track and Field Complex.
The Rams placed a strong second in the nine-team field with 137 points, marking the program’s largest point total at a conference outdoor meet since 1982 (149). The seven event champions equaled a program best.
McAllister was selected the MWC Women’s Field Performer of the Meet. She scored in six events and garnered all-conference honors in five, including a victory in Saturday’s 100 hurdles (14.83) for the second consecutive year.
McAllister won the long jump and javelin on Friday, making her Cornell’s first three-time champion at a conference outdoor meet since Pauline Henry won four events in 1984.
In two seasons at Cornell, McAllister is now a 14-time all-conference honoree and an eight-time champion. Only Abrah Masterson (10) has won more titles.
First-year Hailey Carolan was tabbed the MWC Women’s Newcomer of the Year. She placed third in the 400 hurdles (1:07.74) and fourth in the 100 hurdles (16.81), establishing personal records in both. Carolan won Friday’s high jump in school-record fashion.
Osborn put a fitting stamp on her final MWC competition, earning all-conference honors in four events Saturday. The senior was crowned champion in the 100 with a mark of 12.40. Osborn is the first Ram to win that race since 1983 (Henry).
Osborn reset her own school record in the 200, taking runner-up with a blazing time of 25.24. She ran on the second-place 4×100 relay (49.05) of Caitlyne Mar, Sidney Brown and McAllister. Osborn anchored the 4×400 relay to a season-best runner-up time of 4:02.21. The quartet featured Brown, Claussen-Tubbs and Alyza Koppes.
The third-seeded Claussen-Tubbs raced to a convincing win in the 800, crossing in a personal-record 2:18.54. First-year teammate Koppes took second in 2:20.98, also a PR.
Brown ran a lifetime-best 59.35 in the 400 and finished runner-up. Cari Pickup placed sixth in the 400 hurdles (1:09.97) and McAllister eighth in the 200 (26.62).
Ripon claimed the team championship with 180 points. Monmouth was third (121) and Grinnell fourth (113).