Release Date: March 5, 2001

There have been many constants over the past two decades of track and field at Monmouth College, but as the record books show, there has only been one Constance.

Senior Constance Jackson entered six events at the Midwest Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday in Galesburg and won them all, breaking a slew of records and, more importantly, qualifying individually in three events for next weekend’s national meet in Oshkosh, Wis. It’s likely that Jackson will run in a fourth event at nationals thanks to a solid provisional time turned in by the 4x400 squad on Feb. 24.

"Obviously, her two-day performance has got to be one of the greatest in the history of our conference," said coach Roger Haynes. "She set a number of conference and school records and qualified nationally in four events."

You can throw away your old MC track and field record book, because Jackson broke three more school records at the MWC meet. She now owns four individual and three relay marks, and another record she set Saturday is even more impressive. With her six MWC titles, she moved her career mark to 19 indoor championships, the most for a male or female in MC history. With one last outdoor season remaining, Jackson has 26 titles overall, trailing only former national champion Charles Burton, who won 29 indoor and outdoor MWC championships from 1989-92.

Jackson, the obvious choice for the women's track MVP meet at the meet, had six of the Monmouth women’s eight victories at the meet. Ironically, although the women had won more events only one other time (1996), they didn’t win the team title, falling 164 to 156.5 to Carroll. Meanwhile, the Fighting Scots men won fewer events (2) than they had since 1985, but walked away with their second straight championship, topping Carroll 141-127. Despite winning just twice, the men will send three individuals to the national meet – shot putter Eric Holmes (who won the men's field MVP), high jumper Cort Mills and hurdler Scott Stanton.

"At a meet like this, you want to be as close to your perfect performance as you can be, and I thought the women were close to that," said Haynes. "For the men, they were able to win the title because of the number of talented people they have. Some of the unheralded guys really stepped up, like C.J. Hollingsworth and Bryan Bittner. C.J.’s only been with us two weeks, and he had personal bests in the triple jump and long jump."

In four of Jackson’s wins, she set new MWC records – the long jump (18’5-3/4), the 55-meter dash (7.30), the 200-meter dash (25.38) and the 4x400 relay (4:04.41). She was joined in the latter event by Jill Hoops, Kara Kuhrts and Philicia Moredock. Jackson qualified automatically for the national meet in the long jump and 55-meter dash and her time of 58.31 in the 400-meter dash is a provisional qualifier. Her new school records came in the long jump, 55-

meter dash and 200-meter dash. Jackson was also part of the winning 4x200 team (1:44.29) along with Hoops, Moredock and Elise Estes.

Also winning for the Scots were Kuhrts in the triple jump (35’6-1/2) and Melissa Jones in the high jump (5’2).

On the men’s side, Holmes won the shot with a school and MWC record and national-qualifying heave of 55’1-3/4. Mills won the high jump at 6’6.

Monmouth’s second-place finishers included Hollingsworth in the long jump (22’4-1/2); Holmes in the weight throw (a school-record effort of 50’8-1/2); Stanton in the 55-meter hurdles (a provisional-qualifying time of 7.60); the men’s 4x200 relay team (1:30.37); the men’s 4x400 squad (3:23.71); Bittner in the 800-meter dash (1:59.88); Vanessa Armstrong in the shot put (40’9); and Hoops in the 55-meter dash (7.43) and 55-meter hurdles (8.77).

Thirds came from Justin Bryant in the 200-meter dash (22.84); Chris Lacy in the 400-meter dash (51.00); David Hodge in the triple jump (45’6-3/4); Tobias Dickerson in the shot put (48’7); Courtland Davis in the weight throw (50’2); Calvin Opgenorth in the 55-meter hurdles (7.73); the men’s 1,600-meter sprint medley (3:37.84); Aaron Calder in the 800-meter run (2:00.96); Bittner in the 1,500-meter run (4:05.23); Shalyn Shirey in the long jump (17’2); Moredock in the 200-meter dash (26.68) and 400-meter dash (1:00.11) and Tracy Nelson in the high jump (5’0).