Powered by a stunning anchor-leg performance by Ayden Eickhoff, the Bates women's track and field team placed second in the distance medley relay Friday night at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in team record time, for the best national finish by a relay team in Bates athletics history.
Eickhoff (Corvallis, Mont.) finished a spectacular day with her 1,600-meter anchor leg of the DMR -- running about three hours after she qualified for the 800-meter finals by running a season-best time of 2:11.80.
Eickhoff moved Bates' baton from seventh place at the start of her leg up to the front with about 800 meters to go. Division III mile champion Emily Bryson of Brandeis drafted behind Eickhoff and passed her on the final lap en route to a winning time of 11:40.64, but Eickhoff hung within three seconds at 11:43.51 and held off Kaitlyn Mooney of third-place Coast Guard (11:43.85). The former team record time of 11:44.72 was recorded in 2014 by Isabelle Unger, Claire Markonic, Sarah Fusco and Kallie Nixon.
Eickhoff completed a stellar two-day performance at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships with a third-place finish in the women's 800-meter run, and the Bobcats took 13th place among 109 teams competing at the meet.
Running on the banked track of the Reggie Lewis Center, Eickhoff broke her own team record in the event by a tenth of a second with her time of 2:11.37, earning her second All-America honor in as many days and the fifth of her career.
Barker, a 2018 cross country All-American, beat her previous career-best time from last month by 0.19 seconds.
The eight points scored by the DMR team and the six added by Eickhoff in the 800 gave Bates 14 for the meet, good for 13th place among 109 participating teams.
Eickhoff becomes Bates women's track and field program's sixth athlete with five or more All-America honors, joining Keelin Godsey (16), Vantiel Elizabeth Duncan (6), Izzy Alexander (5), Jessica Wilson (5) and Sally Ceesay (5).
