Crookston High School graduate, Katherine Geist has punched her ticket to the upcoming NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships by winning the mile run at the Wartburg Qualifier, one of a handful of last chance meets held the weekend before the field for the national meet is selected. Geist is a sophomore at Carleton College, a member of the MIAC conference in NCAA Division III.
Geist smashed her previous personal best by 10.8 seconds as she topped the 23-runner field with a time of 4:56.93, bettering both the Hoover Fieldhouse and meet records.
She now ranks No. 9 in the country this season for the mile and No. 23 in the 800-meter run. The top 20 athletes that are entered in an event received spots to the national meet to be held March 11-12 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
It has been a great year for Geist. At the MIAC Conference championships, she won the 1,000-meter race with a time of 2:55.97 finished third place in the 800-meter MIAC Championship while setting a Carleton school record with a time of 2:14.72. She was named to the MIAC All-conference honors for the finishes in the races.
The program for the Mile run is below-
Event 9 Women 1 Mile Prelims
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Name Year School Seed
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1 Ella Baran JR Johns Hopkin 4:43.31D
2 Evie Miller SR Trine 4:47.96D
3 Clara Mayfield SO Carleton 4:52.70D
4 Zanzie Demco SR Wis.-Oshkosh 4:55.34D
5 Katherine Geist FR Carleton 4:56.93D
6 Hope Murphy FR Baldwin Wall 4:57.05D
7 Margaret Trautner SR Caltech 4:57.09D
8 Leila Trummel JR Bowdoin 4:58.80D
9 Molly Fitzgibbons FR Williams 4:59.30D
10 Ellen Mickelson SR St. Olaf 4:59.76D
11 Alyssa Laughner JR Baldwin Wall 5:00.72D
12 Lina Spjut JR Johns Hopkin 5:00.76D
13 Alexandra Blake SO Washington U 5:00.83D
14 Rachel Conhoff JR Ursinus 5:00.98D
15 Maria Blaesing SO Macalester 5:03.46D
16 Ella Behrens JR Washington U 5:03.62D
17 Sarika Temme-Bapat JR U. of Chicag 5:04.01D
18 Jordan Wilson JR Bates 5:04.21D
19 Sarah Bentley FR MIT 5:04.37D
20 Katherine Kenny JR Middlebury 5:04.42D
