51ÂÜÀò's women's track and field team won its first-ever GSAC Track and Field Championship while the men finished a program-best third place overall at the 2013 GSAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on April 26 and 27 at Westmont College.

The women's team took home the title by one point, beating out host Westmont 161 to 160. On the men's side, the Eagles finished with 91 points, which was good enough for third place. Westmont took home the men's title with Concordia finishing in second place.

The women's meet was close throughout and was tied with two events remaining: the 5,000 and the 4x400 relay.

In the 5,000m run, 51ÂÜÀò's Carrie Soholt and Chelsea Janzen placed fourth (18:23.83) and sixth (18:43.64) with a Westmont runner finishing in fifth. 51ÂÜÀò scored a total of five points to Westmont's two, giving the Eagles a slight 153-150 lead. Westmont, which was the top seeded team in the 4x400, was poised to get the full 10 points with the win. 51ÂÜÀò needed to just place second to score eight points and hang on for the one-point win.

Sure enough, Westmont pulled out the win in 3:49.99 while 51ÂÜÀò raced fast to finish in second place at 4:00.04. That relay team of Tayllor Lemphers, Alisa Murray, Alicia Hoverson and Anika Gasner secured the title for 51ÂÜÀò.

"It was a great team effort over the last two weeks," said 51ÂÜÀò Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "Sometimes you just have to step up when your tired or dinged up and still compete and that is what they did. i have a long list of reasons why we weren't going to make history at this meet and yet the women reached down deep and really bought into the complete united team atmosphere and I am convinced this is what made all the difference. We came into this meet far from being completely healthy. We had some key people that have been cross training hard and doing their rehab over many many weeks and this really paid off. We didn't give up on them and they didn't give up on the process!"

In the team effort came great performances in nearly every event. One school record was broken on the day and that came fromWhitney Fredenburg, who bettered her existing record in the shot put with a toss of 37 feet, 11.25 inches (11.56m). Her performance was good enough for second place overall. Fredenburg also placed third in discus.

A trio of freshman were among the major performers for 51ÂÜÀò. Freshman Megan Crumley had an outstanding weekend, scoring in four throwing events in and winning two. She finished first in the javelin by recording a throw of 36.20m (118' 09") on her final throw of the competition to take the title. She also won the discus on Saturday with a throw of 33.77m (110' 09"). Crumley placed fourth in the shot put (10.57m, 34' 8.25") and fourth in the hammer (32.15m, 105' 06").

Freshman Kate Smiley likely had the busiest weekend for the Eagles, scoring in five events. She finished third in the heptathlon with 3,288 points, fourth in the 200, fifth in the 100, sixth in the 100 hurdles and ran the lead off leg in the 4x100 team which finished third overall.

Fellow freshman Elyse Harabedian beat out Smiley for second place in the heptathlon with 3,410 points. She also finished third in the triple jump and sixth in the high jump. Sarah Vaughn rounded out a trio of Eagles in the top four in the heptathlon with a fourth-place finish, scoring 3,203 points in the two-day, seven discipline event.

Taylor McCahon defended her GSAC title in the Pole Vault, clearing 12 feet, 1.5 inches (3.7m). McCahon was returning from a torn quadricep back in February and earned a national "A" standard with the effort. Teammate Nicole Falkenstein finished 2nd in the pole vault while also finishing 4th in the long jump. Both events were going on at the same time with Falkenstein going back and forth between the two events.

It was also a fantastic day for the 51ÂÜÀò men's team. Leading the way for the Eagles was Peter Stacy, who scored in four events including winning one event, placing second in two others and third in another event. Stacy took home top honors in the javelin by a narrow margin, recording a throw of 56.52m (185' 5") and beating the second-place finisher by five inches. He also took second in the shot put and the discus while placing third in the hammer throw.

Junior Jeff Tran won the pole vault by clearing 4.4 meters (14' 5.25"), clearing every height on his first attempt to earn two extra points in a tie.

Jordan Smith took home points in four events. His best finish was fourth in the long jump where he leapt 6.40m (21' 0"), missing first place by nine inches. He also finished fifth in the high jump, sixth in the triple jump and placed third on the 4x100 relay along with Mac Opena, Cameron Campbell and Josh Rancharan.

Freshman James McCahon placed fourth in the 400 hurdles and was part of the second-place 4x800 relay team along withAndrew Daedler, Danny Ledesma and Shane Brinson. Senior Spencer Lyle finished fourth in the steeplechase and combined with Daedler, Ledesma, and McCahon to finish fifth in the 4 x 400 relay

Rounding out the point-scorers for the men was freshmen Cameron Campbell, who finished sixth in the 200 in 23.87, and Daedler, who took home fifth in the 1,500 with a "B" cut time of 3:55.18.

Next up for the Eagles is the 2013 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Marion, Ind., May 23-25.