MORRIS, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Women's Track and Field team competed in the 2023 UMAC Championships this past weekend. The Eagles finished in fifth place overall and had multiple individual event victories and podium appearances.
 
Day One
 
The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships got underway on Friday afternoon and the University of Northwestern Women's Track and Field team got off to a good start on day one of competition. The Eagles currently sit in fifth place out of seven teams and had two individual winners out of the nine events that took place on day one.
 
Deanna Trucksess (Spirit Lake, Iowa/Spirit Lake), who already has multiple All-Conference honors on her resume in her young career, seems destined for most postseason honors this spring after her strong start to the Championships on Friday. Trucksess won the 200m dash with a time of 26.54 seconds. Trucksess finished second in the event last season but took home the gold in the 200m this spring.

Emily Ashton (Camas, Wash./St. Mary's Academy) picked up the other individual win for the Eagles on Friday by winning the Javelin throw. Ashton's surge in the Javelin events in the spring of 2023 has been remarkable. She picked up her second win in as many weeks in the event with a distance of 38.78m, which was a career best and is the second best mark in school history.

Caroline Ringsmuth (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) also got on the podium on Friday afternoon with her performance in the 3000m Steeplechase. Ringsmuth was coming off a performance in the event where she qualified for the NCCAA National Championships and she rode that momentum into the UMAC Championships. The freshman finished in third place overall with an impressive time of 12:53.96.

Winona Warden (Jordan, Minn./Jordan) finished in 15^th place overall in the 200m dash with a time of 29.07 seconds. The time was by far the freshman's fastest of her college career, beating her previous best of 29.58 seconds.

The Eagles will celebrate their individual and team success on Friday but will then shift their focus to Saturday where they will look to finish strong at the UMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The conference has announced that due to weather, tomorrow's schedule has been moved up an hour. Field events will now start at 10:00 AM and running events will start at 11:30 AM. Updates on the 2023 UMAC Outdoor Championships can be found at umacathletics.com.

Day Two

The Eagles picked up another win on Saturday afternoon when Deanna Trucksess (Spirit Lake, Iowa/Spirit Lake) won the 400m dash with a time of 1:01.24. Trucksess continued her big spring by picking up another conference championship in a sprinting event. The sophomore came close to adding a third gold medal to her weekend, finishing second overall in the 100m dash with a time of 13.37 seconds. The 100m dash came merely twenty minutes after her winning performance in the 400m race. Trucksess gave it her all this weekend and was rewarded with more wins to go on her impressive resume.

Winona Warden (Jordan, Minn./Jordan) turned in a personal best in the 400m dash with a time of 1:07.31.

Caroline Ringsmuth (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) scored some points for the Eagles by finishing in the top ten in the 1500m run. The freshman finished 8^th overall with a time of 5:33.21.

Emily Ashton (Camas, Wash./St. Mary's Academy) finished in the top twenty in the shot put with a distance of 8.38m. She then followed up that performance with a distance of 29.05m in the discus which gave her an 8^th place finish to score more points for the team's total.