Track and field takes fourth on Sports’ list of top five stories as it enjoyed a historic two-day stretch at the MAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 27-28 in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

The Huskies took first place in three events, winning the pentathlon, 60-meter hurdles and 4-by-400-meter relay. They entered the meet having won only two conference indoor championship events in school history.

“Our team overall did very, very well,” said senior sprinter/jumper Latesha Bigby, according to a March 2 Northern Star article. “We went to war, and even though we made minor [mistakes] we went to war and we did our best.”

Claudette Day, sophomore multi-events athlete, became the first Huskie in program history to win the pentathlon at the MAC Indoor Championships. She scored 3,838 points across the five events.

Bigby took the crown in the 60-meter hurdles. She registered a personal-record time of 8.42 seconds in the victory.

The 4-by-400-meter relay team earned the program’s first win in the event at the conference indoor championships. The team of Bigby, senior Julianne Cronin, sophomore A’Iesha Irvin-Muhammad and freshman Ashanti Hutton crossed the tape in 3:47.82.

The Huskies scored 79 team points and finished fourth out of 12 teams, both of which were program bests. They finished 10th last year with 37 points.

“That’s a huge accomplishment for a team and a big jump in a short period of time,” said head coach Connie Teaberry, according to the Northern Star. “A lot of that is due to the ladies’ hard work and dedication, but it’s also maturity. The girls are mentally getting stronger and physically getting stronger.

“So, moving up is a huge accomplishment for the team and one we will not take for granted. We’ll work even harder to make sure we can stay there.”

NIU also garnered three second-place finishes, two third-place finishes, one fifth-place finish, two sixth-place finishes, and three eighth-place finishes.