SE Adds Three Event Titles to Close Out GAC Championship

MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Macayla Needham, Madison Rowe, Kendal Fellegy, Kaitlyn Cedillo, and Caylee Conley left Magnolia, Ark., at Great American Conference Champions as Southeastern closed out the final day of the GAC Championship meet with a fifth-place finish as a team.
 
The 82 points scored by SE in the event is the most in program history at the championship meet, with the squad posting program bests in championships won, with four, and total All-GAC honors with 14 top-8 finishes.
 
Southeastern closed the event with a thrilling 4x400 meter relay victory as Fellegy, Rowe, Cedillo, and Conley would turn in a 3:48.13, beating the squad from Oklahoma Baptist by more than a second, and was nearly seven seconds ahead of third place.
 
Rowe earned her own individual Great American Conference Championship when she turned in a run of 55.49 to win the 400 meters. Despite the win in the finals, Rowe's time, while meeting the NCAA DII Provisional standard, was slightly behind her record pace of 55.46 she ran in the prelims. Rowe also becomes the first Storm runner to win an individual title and a relay title at the same GAC championship meet.
 
Two other SE runners earned All-GAC honors in the finals of the 400 meters with Caylee Conley posting a time of 56.64 to finish fourth while Keitlyn Cedillo ran a 58.28 to finish seventh, scoring 17 team points as a trio.
 
Needham earned her second GAC Championship of the weekend, this one in the shot put after posting a throw of 15.28, becoming just the second SE athlete to win two individual event titles at one meet, and the first to do it in the field events.
 
The first Southeastern group to pick up All-GAC honors on the day was the 4x100 meter relay team of Jayda Williams, Ashton Carter, Karissa Nixon, and Caylee Conley who put together a run of 47.24 to finish third in the event.  Their effort set a new school record in the event, improving on the previous best by a quarter of a second.
 
Makensi Greenwood would add an all-conference performance with her second-place finish in the 800-meter run, clocking a time of 2:13.50 which passe the conference meet record despite finishing second.
 
Fellegy and Rowe would tack onto their impressive weekend efforts by picking up All-GAC honors in the 400 meter hurdles, as Fellegy turned in a fifth place finish with a run of 1:05.18, while Rowe posted a 1:05.32 to finish sixth.
 
Additionally, the league also announced its distinguished scholar athletes as Amore Armstrong, Katy Newsom, and Sarah Coblentz were all recognized for their efforts in the classroom.