The Muhlenberg women's track and field team wrapped up its first Centennial Conference championship at home on May 8, 2005.

Following are excerpts from an article about the championship on its 15th anniversary. 

The Muhlenberg women's track and field team finished second at the 2005 Centennial Conference Indoor Championships. It was the Mules' best finish ever, and it came just five years after they came in ninth out of nine teams with only 11 points.

How did the squad react to such a positive milestone for the program?

"The team was just devastated," recalled Katie (Macomber) Skillings '05. "I mean, that bus ride back was awful. Horrible. I don't think anybody talked." 

"We were all really disappointed," added Danielle Seiler '06. 

Why the bitterness? The Mules felt they could have won – should have won - the championship. They finished a mere 2½ points behind host Dickinson.

"In a conference championship where there's several hundred points going out, you're losing by a fraction of a percentage," said Rachel Drosdick-Sigafoos '07. "So everybody felt responsible. Everybody felt like if they had just done one thing slightly better, we could have come home with the trophy."

The near-miss served as fuel for Muhlenberg in the outdoor season. A little more than two months later, they turned that frown upside down in a big way, wrapping up the CC championship at Scotty Wood Stadium on May 8, 2005.

The Mules scored 173½ points, finishing a whopping 33½ points ahead of second-place Gettysburg and 52½ points in front of third-place Dickinson. The margin of victory remains the highest in CC history for a team winning its first title. 

The conference championship was the first for Muhlenberg in track and field since 1944, when the men's team won the MAC title.

"It was just a great weekend, and to do it on our home track was even cooler," said Jacquelyn Inverso Niegocki '07. 

Muhlenberg began the third and final day of the meet in third place but finished strong, scoring points in 12 of 13 championship events on Sunday. The Mules netted an incredible 129 points on the final day, only 11 fewer than Gettysburg scored in the entire meet.

The team members combined to break or tie 11 school records and turn in five NCAA provisional qualifying performances. 

"We had so much depth, and we were just able to almost dominate in every event," said Seiler, a podiatrist in South Jersey. "I remember in the 400, there were so many of us that made it to the final that it was like Muhlenberg, Muhlenberg, Muhlenberg crossing the finish line."

Seiler led the Muhlenberg, Muhlenberg, Muhlenberg parade in the 400 (for the record, the Mules went 1-4-6-7) in a school-record time. She also set a school record in winning the 400 intermediate hurdles and garnered two silver medals on relay teams. 

Seiler was named Most Outstanding Performer for track events; as a testament to the depth and talent on that team, she was one of three Mules who would earn that honor. Niegocki, who still holds the school record in the triple jump, was Most Outstanding indoors in 2004 and 2006, while Sarah Mitchell Angelozzi '07, a future All-American in the javelin, was recognized outdoors in 2007.  

Drosdick-Sigafoos set school records in both the heptathlon and long jump during the meet, winning a silver in the former. Jenna Lombardi broke school records in both the 100 and 200, and Meghan Douglas-Snyder '05 tied the school mark in the pole vault. Ashlie Hankee '05, who served as a team co-captain along with Skillings and Danielle Bovelle '05, set a school record while hitting the NCAA provisional mark in the 100 hurdles.

Following the awards ceremony, all the Mules – sprinters, jumpers, throwers, distance runners, vaulters – came together as one to pose for a picture with the trophy in the middle of Scotty Wood Stadium.

"I think about that picture, and that just encapsulates the emotion and energy and just the dynamic nature of that team," said Jenna (Belisonzi) Papaz '05, who won a gold medal in the 5K and is currently director of health advancement & prevention strategies at Lehigh University. "We were very different, but yet we came together as one for that team. I felt an overall sense of pride being on a team that did something that had never been done before, and it's something that I've taken with me forever."

"There were a lot of women on that team who even now, are very hard-nosed, driven professionals and individuals," said Drosdick-Sigafoos, student assistant program liaison at Children's Service Center of Wyoming Valley. "And really, stubbornness is probably the difference between absolutely having an awful outdoor season and us winning by the margin that we did. That is just the raw unwillingness to admit defeat. And it is a beautiful form of what the power of real stubbornness can be."