Smith makes national debut; Sporrer, Zuehl close careers

Over the last few years, qualifying for nationals has become the expectation for Morningside's women's 4x800-meter relay team. This spring is no different.

The quartet of Jolee Mesz, Morgan Sachs, Madison Sporrer and Nicole Zuehl qualified for the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, which begin May 20 in Asheville, North Carolina. The relay is one of three national qualifiers representing Morningside next week, joining Kylin Smith in the 400-meter hurdles and Courtney Sporrer in the steeplechase.

The Mustangs qualified for nationals with a time of 9 minutes, 23.94 seconds earlier this month at the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships, where they placed second. That time ranks 25th nationally entering the meet.

Morningside head coach Frank Wallace said the program takes pride in the history and consistency of the relay.

"It gets faster and faster and we still can't believe as coaches how fast it's gotten over the course of the years," Wallace said. "We take pride in being able to hold the history of that relay and be able to bring that notoriety to the relay and continue it."

The relay group features a mix of experience and youth. Zuehl is the senior, Mesz the junior, Sachs the sophomore and Madison Sporrer the freshman. Zuehl has been a key part of the relay throughout her Morningside career and is looking forward to one final race with the group.

"This group is really special because we train together. We're like family," Zuehl said. "I can always count on them so I'm very excited to finish it out with this group. We'd get up at like six in the morning and do workouts together and then seeing our progression throughout the year from qualifying for cross country nationals to indoor to outdoor, it's been really special."

Meanwhile, Courtney Sporrer returns to nationals looking to build off last season's breakout steeplechase performance. In her first year competing in the event, Sporrer placed fifth nationally with a personal-best time of 10:55.26.

This spring, the senior posted her top steeplechase time at the Drake Relays, running 11:03.05. She also won the event at the Sioux City Relays earlier in the season.

"She's accepted every challenge we've thrown at her," Wallace said. "I think she's a special athlete simply because she can adjust to almost any environment that you put her in. Any national meet that we've been at, we've asked her to run on a (4x800) first leg as a freshman. We've asked her to anchor it as a junior. We asked her to do certain things and she's always stepped up to the plate."

Sporrer also finished as the GPAC runner-up in the 5,000 meters and picked up a win in the event at the USD Twilight earlier this month.

For Madison Sporrer, getting the opportunity to watch her sister compete one final time brings mixed emotions.

"Seeing how far she's come and she's come such a long way and it's the last time I'm going to ever watch her run competitively like this," Madison said.

Smith, meanwhile, will make her first trip to the national stage after qualifying in the 400-meter hurdles. The freshman broke the school record at the GPAC Championships with a time of 1:02.53 and enters nationals as one of only seven freshmen in the field.

She said the transition from high school competition to the college level required a major adjustment.

"Everything I'm doing is paying off really big," Smith said.

Over the last month, Smith has cut nearly four seconds off her time, helping her make the national cut.

"When she puts it together, she's special," Wallace said. "Being able to adjust that mental side of things and it poured over to her physical aspect as well. She knew she had to put certain work in. There's certain workouts that she would be like, 'I don't know if I'm ready for this.' Now it's like, I need to be ready for this. So just having that shift has been a big thing for her."