MONMOUTH, Ill. — Led by four individuals who earned Most Outstanding Performer honors, the Fighting Scots men’s and women’s teams swept the competitions at the Midwest Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday in Galesburg for the third year in a row.

In what has become a tradition for Monmouth, the team's seniors stepped forward to received the Midwest Conference championship trophy at last week's indoor meet in Galesburg. The senior men are, from left, Ortez Davis, Jason Killion, Ryan Moll, Ted Ross and Nathan Gaskill. The senior women are, from left, Shalyn Shirey, Elizabeth Altekruse, Katy Healy and Meaghan Tobias.

For the men, who easily outdistanced runner-up St. Norbert 228-110, it was their fifth straight indoor title. The women had a much harder fight, eventually fending off a strong challenge from Carroll to win 175-165. The two championships pushed to 31 the total achieved at Monmouth by coach Roger Haynes, who was named the MWC Men’s Coach of the Year.

Blake Boma, Zach Barr and Ryan Moll shared the MOP honor in men’s track, while Katy Healy was one of two athletes honored in the women’s field events category.

Both Barr and Healy broke their own school records in the process, with Barr shattering his previous best in the 3000-meter run. He won the event in 8:38.49, which was 13 seconds faster than his mark set at last year’s conference meet. The sophomore from Roseville beat some impressive individuals, topping Grinnell distance star Adam Booth in the 3000 and defeating MWC 800-meter champ Colin McKean of St. Norbert in the 1500-meter run, winning with a time of 3:58.07.

"It’s hard to decide where to start with Zach," said Haynes. "The quality of his performances was pretty amazing, and so was the quality of the people he defeated. He beat Adam Booth twice, and I believe Booth hasn’t lost a cross country or a track race to a Midwest Conference runner in his career. Zach just passed 200 consecutive days of running. All his hard work is definitely paying off."

Besides the 3000-meter race, which Haynes listed as one of the highlights of the meet, Barr’s other victory over Booth came in the distance medley when he topped his Grinnell counterpart in the final leg to lead Monmouth to first place in 10:40.22. Other relay members were Darin VanNattan, Nathan Gaskill and Anthony Welty.

Unfortunately for Barr, noted Haynes, it’s an "exceptional year" at the national level in the 800 and 1500, so he was not able to advance to the national meet.

Healy’s record came in the weight throw, as she topped her previous best by nearly two inches. She won the event with a throw of 50’6-1/4, and she added a victory in the shot put (41’9-1/4).

"As far as what she did for the team, I’m very pleased," said Haynes. "She’s the absolute leader of the team in terms of work ethic and performance."

Boma and Moll were also multiple individual winners for the Scots. Boma, a junior from Harrisburg, is Monmouth’s lone qualifier for the national indoor meet, winning the 55-meter hurdles in 7.62 seconds. That is the sixth-fastest time ever turned in by an MC hurdler, and he is now the 12^th-ranked hurdler in the nation. Boma’s victory did not come easily, as he was pushed to the finish by the Scots’ Ortez Davis, whose time of 7.64 seconds is ranked 15^th but did not make the national cut.

"Blake has had a great mental approach to the indoor season," said Haynes. "Much like Zach, it’s hard to decide whether the quality of his performances were the highlight or the combination of his performances. He ran a pretty amazing combination of races, and to qualify for nationals in an event that is not his primary one really says a lot about him."

Boma also won the 55-meter dash with a provisional qualifying time of 6.49 seconds, in the process becoming the second-fastest Scot ever at that distance, and he joined Ryan Moll, Tyler Rundle and Davis on the 4x200 team that won its event in 1:29.83 and missed a school record by .04 of a second. He was also runner-up in the 200-meter dash (22.66) and third in the 400-meter dash (50.59).

Moll captured individual victories in the 200-meter dash (22.50) and the 400-meter dash (a provisional qualifying time of 49.63), and he was also part of the Scots’ first-place 4x400 squad (3:23.99) along with Kel Bond, Davis and Boma.

"Ryan is the cornerstone of our men’s program," praised Haynes. "He’s a leader by example and a leader by performance. He ran six races over the weekend, and he wasn’t selfish. Rather than go for an individual record in one of them, he did what he needed to do for the team. I’m glad for him that he got two individual first place finishes."

Other individual winners for the Scots were Jason Killion in the long jump (22’6-1/2), Jeff Rebholz in the shot put (49’3-1/2) and Amy Horneck in the triple jump (35’2). The women’s 4x200 team of Melissa Pacheco, Brenda Herrera, Shalyn Shirey and Kila Cox also won with a time of 1:46.67.

Two high finishers for the Monmouth women turned in performances that rank among the best on the school honor roll. Shirey’s second-place time of 7.41 in the 55-meter dash was the sixth-fastest time ever turned in by a Scot, while Elizabeth Altekruse placed third in the 1500-meter run with the third-best time in MC history at that distance (5:02.44).

Another highlight of the meet for Haynes came in the women’s final event of the day, the 4x400. Despite the fact that they had already clinched the meet title, his young squad of Herrera, Pacheco, Jacquie Ouart and Megan Hamilton trimmed six seconds off their best time of the year, placing third in (4:09.96).

"They were really emotional and really competitive," said Haynes of the promising group, which included three freshmen and a sophomore.

The veteran MC coach also was impressed with the "arrival" of two women. In the 5000-meter run, sophomore Erin Mann scored her first points at an MWC meet. Said Haynes, "She ran a lifetime best by a bunch (34 seconds) and beat a couple of all-conference cross country girls in the process. She’s getting where she wants to be as a college distance runner."

Haynes also noted the sharp rise in performance for Curry, who placed third in the weight throw at 43’2-1/4. She threw 31’2-1/4 feet at last year’s MWC meet and 38’2-3/4 last week in her first meet since joining the team after the basketball season.

Other second-place finishers for Monmouth included Bond in the 800-meter run (1:55.49), Tim Frank in the high jump (6’4-3/4), Albert Greene in the triple jump (44’2), James Blair in the weight throw (50’0-3/4), Herrera in the 200-meter dash (26.56), Altekruse in the 800-meter run (2:26.66), Andrea Emery in the high jump (4’11) and Shirey in the long jump (16’4-1/2).

Placing third for the Scots were Bond in the 1500-meter run (4:02.45), Nick Raes in the high jump (6’2-3/4), Rebholz in the weight throw (49’9-3/4), Pacheco in the 200-meter dash (27.10), Aleksandra Forsman in the 5000-meter run (19:38.88), Horneck in the long jump (16’3-3/4), Meaghan Tobias in the shot put (38’10-1/4) and both the men’s and women’s sprint medley teams.

Other Scots who recorded points at the meet were Oscar Scott, Ted Ross, James VanDyke, Nick DeFrancisco, Jason Salmon, Alex Stuart, Abby Horneck, Sara Ingersoll and Christina Reiner.

For Haynes, the championships took a back seat to the quality of performances he saw across the board.

"It comes down to how well we are doing with what we’ve got," he said. "Athletes come and go. Back in 1992, I thought we might not be able to recover when (national champion) Charles Burton left, but we’ve done OK since then.

"Even with only one athlete going to nationals, we are doing very well in the national power polls," he added. "Our men are ranked in the top 10. It’s a great indicator of how strong we are overall."

After Boma competes at nationals, the Scots will take some time off from meets before opening the outdoor season March 27 at Bobby Woll Memorial Field at the Monmouth Invitational.