Both the St. Thomas men’s and women’s track and field teams won conference titles at the 2015 MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturday at Macalester College.

For the women, it was the 11th straight conference title and the 31st in the 33 years of the event as they finished with a score of 148. For the men, this weekend marked the fourth straight conference title and the 33rd in program history as they finished with a score of 164.5. Men’s coach Steve Mathre said he is incredibly proud of the way his team performed.

“This is a special group of seniors,” Mathre said. “They’ve won four indoor and four outdoor conference championships for a total of eight straight conference titles. They had to come together as a team to have the outcome that we did.”

First-place winners from the men’s team included Matt Schauer in the shot put with a throw of 16.77 meters. Schauer’s throw is currently ranked eighth in the nation in Division-III. Connor Gross also won in the 110-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles with times of 15.07 and 54.65, respectively. Mathre said he was pleasantly surprised with Gross’s performance.

“It’s really unbelievable for a freshman to do that, and he’s really developed into a solid performer and a clutch athlete,” Mathre said.

First-place winners for the women included Kayla Goeman in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.37, Melissa Engstrom in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:01.38 and Emily Gapinksi in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:34.18. Megan Maki, Katie Murray, Erika Tipp and Angela Tipp also took first in the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 48.68. Angela Tipp also won the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.39. Angela Tipp said her performance would not be possible without the coaches.

“It was kind of scary because handoffs are actually a lot harder than people think they are,” Tipp said. “You really have to trust each other in order to do a blind handoff. Our coach convinced us we could do it, and we ended up winning.”

Angela Tipp is a senior captain who has acquired numerous accolades in her four years on the track team. She gave St. Thomas a lot of credit for her success.

“My four years here at St. Thomas were wonderful,” Tipp said. “It’s really fun watching a team grow up. Getting a new coach, Aaron Lund, was really great. He’s been a blessing to this team. Honestly, track is one of my proudest achievements at St. Thomas.”

Mathre said 11 consecutive conference titles by the women’s team is unprecedented.

“That’s a terrific accomplishment without question,” Mathre said. “Coach Sweeney and his staff do a terrific job. We have our separate head coaches, but we do share lots of the assistant coaches, and they work tirelessly to make sure all our athletes have all the attention and the coaching they need.”

The next step for both teams are the NCAA qualifiers on May 14 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

“Right now we need to focus on re-gathering our strength and getting healthy from competing so much this weekend,” Tipp said. “Get our rest, get healthy and really keep the mindset that we can do it.”

Andrew Frentz can be reached at fren2218@stthomas.edu.