DE PERE, Wis. – The final day of the 2012 Midwest Conference Championships turned out to be a huge one for the Grinnell College women's track and field team.

Christine Ajinjeru '14 won the 400-meter dash while smashing her own school record, and the Pioneers broke three other school records Saturday at Schneider Stadium.

Ajinjeru won the 400-meter dash in 57.37 seconds, beating her record of 58.00 established in Friday's preliminaries. She beat her nearest competitor by more than a second.
Other school records were set by Sarah Burnell '14 in the 800, Eloise Miller '15 in the triple jump and the 4x400 relay team of Emily Clennon '14, Ajinjeru, Miller and Burnell.

Burnell went on to be named one of the four MWC Women's Track Performers of the Year along with Emily Schudrowitz of St. Norbert College, Megan O'Grady of Carroll University and Melissa Norville of Illinois College

Burnell ran 2:13.49 to finish second and beat her own school record of 2:14.88 established last season, while the 4x400 team had a clocking of 3:59.22 to also finish second and beat the previous Pioneers best of 4:01.39 set this season. Burnell had a split of 59.1 seconds on that relay and Clennon a 59.9. Grinnell finished only behind St. Norbert College, which set a meet record.

Diana Seer '15 was fifth in the 3000 steeplechase in 12:01.89, a clocking that ranks second in school history, while sixth place went to Ajinjeru in the 200 (26.67), Hannah Colter '12 in the 5000 (18:51.41) and Megan Huey '12 in the shot put (39-6 ½).

The Pioneers got seventh-place finishes from Clennon in the 100 (12.97), Jordan Young '14 in the shot put (39-3 ¾) and Huey in the javelin (98-9), while eighth went to Young in the javelin (98-7) and the 4x100 relay team of Clennon, Elsa Goldman '15, Ellen Pinnette '15 and Miller (53.03). Young's shot put effort ranks fourth in school history.

Grinnell was fifth in the team standings with 86 points. Defending champion Monmouth College won with 250.5 points.