St. Thomas' MIAC Indoor Streak Reaches 28

Much has happened in the world since the spring of 1985, when the St.Thomas men won the first-ever Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Track title.

Ronald Reagan had just begun his second term in office back then, Nelson Mandela was still imprisoned in South Africa, and Mikhail Gorbachev had just become the new leader of something we called Soviet Union.

Twenty-seven years, four presidents, and countless changes to the world later, at least one thing has remained unchanged: Each March -- 28 of them in a row -- the Tommie men have won the MIAC Indoor Championships.

The Tommie's won their 28th-straight MIAC Indoor title at Macalester on Saturday after they tallied 189.5 points to out-distance runner-up Hamline at 129.5.

Mike Hutton (600m, 800m) and Ben Sathre (mile, 3000m) won two titles each for Steve Mathre's team, and Eyo Ekpo won his seventh career MIAC triple jump title in the effort.

Hardly outdone, the St. Thomas women won their 13th-straight MIAC Indoor title with 164 points -- a streak that, since we're keeping track, dates to a time when Bill Clinton was the U.S. president, Nelson Mandela was retired as South Africa's president, and Boris Yeltsin was finishing up his term as Russian president.

Carleton was this year's runner-up at 114. Joe Sweeney's St. Thomas team have now won 25 of the 28 MIAC Indoor meets contested.

Emily Van Heel was a three-time champion for the Tommies' -- winning the triple jump, 200m, and anchoring the 4 x 400m relay.

Find complete results of the meet HERE (men) and HERE (women)

There's web video coverage of the meet -- something that certainly wasn't around in 1985 -- HERE.