By RICHIE HALL
The Huntington University women’s track and field team went to South Dakota State University in early March, on a journey that team member Molly Mitchell said was to be treated as a “business trip.”
The Foresters were at SDSU with a goal in mind: To win the NAIA national indoor track and field championship. Once there, Huntington was all business, winning the NAIA title. The Foresters scored 77 points, just ahead of William Carey’s 71 points.
Mitchell, a Hamilton Heights graduate, was a big part of Huntington’s success. She ran on the winning 4×800 relay and distance medley relay (DMR) teams, in addition to placing fourth in the mile run, part of a 1-2-4 finish for the Foresters in that event.
“We knew that achieving that goal was going to be really dependent on us being really focused, on us doing our jobs and helping each other out,” said Mitchell. “Some of us had really busy days.”
The NAIA nationals took place March 5 to 7, with preliminaries and finals in all of the running events. The Huntington women had eight athletes on the team – the first time a team had won a national championship with so few runners – so Mitchell said there were “a lot of people running a lot of races.” As a result, the athletes had to be “really on it with our recovery,” said Mitchell. “We had some people running two races within an hour.”
Mitchell pointed out the adventures of her fellow senior, Aspen Dirr, who competed in five events. Incredibly, Dirr won four of those five, triumphing in the 1000-meter run and the mile, then joining Mitchell as part of the 4×800 relay and DMR. Dirr also was the runner-up in the 5000-meter run.
“She ran a bajillion races over the weekend,” said Mitchell. “She had some races that, she finished the 5L and had to immediately got to the next race, the DMR. We had some people doing some pretty crazy turnover.”
It never got that crazy for Mitchell, though.
“I had a decent amount of time,” she said. “Probably two to three hours was the least amount of time I had between mine.”
Dirr won the mile in 4:53.72, with junior Hannah Stoffel second in 4:55.21. Mitchell placed fourth with a time of 4:57.18. Most important of all, the trio earned 23 points for the Foresters, giving them a big boost in the team standings.
Then, add in 20 more points for victories in the 4×800 and distance medley. Mitchell, junior Mara McFarland, Dirr, Stoffel ran away with the 4×800, clocking in at 9:06.20, over 10 seconds ahead of second place.
“It wasn’t the fastest time we’ve ever run it, but it was so early on in the weekend that we wanted to make sure we didn’t completely burn ourselves out,” said Mitchell. “We knew what time each of us had to run.” The team didn’t take the race for granted, but instead ran smart: “We couldn’t go out there and bust all of our guts for it,” said Mitchell.
The same foursome in the 4×800 race teamed up to win the distance medley. Dirr started the race with a 1200-meter run, followed by McFarland with the 400, Mitchell with the 800 and Stoffel with the 1600. The Huntington team finished the event in 11:46.71, over eight seconds ahead of second place.
Mitchell said one of the things she enjoys about the DMR is that everyone gets to show off the distance in which they specialize. She said trusting her training and remembering the hard workouts that have been done in preparation for the race are things that help out.
“I’ve done this before, so I know I can do it again,” said Mitchell.
Since the team was so focused during nationals, many of the athletes weren’t following the score and realizing that Huntington was winning. Mitchell was in that group.
“I personally wasn’t aware that we were winning until right before that last race (the DMR),” said Mitchell. “There were a few other girls that talked to the coaches, and the coaches shared that we were ahead.”
But once the Foresters had the DMR in hand, that’s when it began to set in.
“We finally relaxed and could get excited about it,” said Mitchell.
All of those high finishes meant that Mitchell and her teammates earned All-American honors in their respective events. In her junior season, Mitchell was part of the 4×800 team that finished ninth at nationals, also giving her All-American honors.
By the time the NAIA track national championships came around, Mitchell had gotten used to that stage. She competed on Huntington’s national-qualifying cross country team as well, helping the Foresters to a 10th-place finish.
Individually, Mitchell placed 17th in the 5000-meter race, finishing in 18:26.4 and earning All-American honors. Not bad for someone who wasn’t even planning to be on the cross country team until she met the new coach, Nick Johnson, at the start of her junior year – “he convinced me,” said Mitchell.
During her junior season, Mitchell admitted that she did not enjoy cross country at first. But she saw the positives: “I loved the team and I could see that I was growing a lot, even though I wasn’t an awesome 5K runner at that point, I was able to see a lot of growth in myself.”
Then came her senior year, which Mitchell said she enjoyed more.
“Because I put faith in my coaching, my team, I was able to improve enough to make my own mark at nationals,” said Mitchell.
As a senior, Mitchell is about ready to wrap up her college career and graduate from Huntington. She is majoring in social work, and has received extensive real-world experience in that field.
“A big thing that our school focuses on is experiential learning,” said Mitchell. “Your senior year, your whole last semester is you get 480 hours in a field placement.” Mitchell did her semester at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.
Mitchell will now be working on her Masters Degree, which she will get at Ball State University. She has expressed an interest in hospital social work. “I’d like to end up at a hospital somewhere,” she said.