The men's track team placed sixth overall at the NCAC conference championships this weekend thanks in part to conference champion pole-vaulter, senior Kyle Mackey.
"It feels awesome to represent DePauw and a dream come true for myself," said Mackey. "I've worked so hard and sacrificed so much to have this opportunity."
Mackey capped off an impressive career with his second conference title in addition to his conference runner-up performance last season. Mackey's top height of 15-5 propelled him to the win as junior Aaron Krabill finished with a top height of 13-11.25.
"The team was there to take care of business," said Mackey, "It's the last opportunity of the year to prove something to yourself or your team; you want to end on your best effort. I was so proud of our guys team, we wanted to achieve better than our seventh overall team seed and we did that and some, even surprised a few of us."
Other top contributors include junior Amen Galley who took second in the long jump and sophomore Marcus Dozier who took third in shot put.
The Tigers finished the competition behind conference champions Wabash College and Ohio Wesleyan University.
The women's team also saw players bring home success. Celia Kauth led the Tigers with a conference victory in the high jump. Sophomore Maggie Royalty took third in the 100-meter dash as well.
"Winning conference was one of my goals for this season, and making it to the podium was very exciting," Kauth said. "I finished second place in the high jump last year, which made the victory this year even sweeter."
Depth proved to be a problem for the Tigers this year, however, as most of the points were scored by these top finishers. Contributions also came from sophomore Heather O'Brien as she finished fifth in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:50.69 and eighth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:09.26.
Senior Katie Doron also furthered the Tigers' cause with her seventh place finishes in the 1,500-meter and 800-meter runs with times of 4:53.15 and 2:23.02 respectively.
"Katie ran a fierce race in the 800-meter prelims," Kauth said. "Watching her finish her career on such a strong set of races was incredible."
With the success found this year at conference, the Tigers have set a precedent for the future that they could be contenders in the conference with many of their top contributors returning next season.
