Rothbauer, McMahon end 2013 track seasons

UW-River Falls junior Amanda Rothbauer recently completed her third season competing on the track and field team for the Wildcats while sophomore Sarah McMahon ended her second year of competition for the Bradley University Braves.

Rothbauer, a 2010 graduate of Colfax, ran on two relay teams and in the 800 m race at the WIAC championships held May 3 at UW-La Crosse. Her 4 X 400 team placed second with a time of 3:53.59, one second behind the winning team while her 4 X 800 team placed seventh in 9:58.32. She finished 10th in the preliminary run of the 800 with a time of 2:19.5 but did not qualify for the finals. In the Division 3 NCAA Qualifier meet also held in La Crosse, her 4 X 400 relay team was seventh with a time of 3:52.68.

McMahon continues to impress everyone as she ran the second best time in the Division 1 school’s history in the 10,000 m race at 34.53.16 at the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, CA. Her time was three seconds behind Bradley’s all time leader Mary Ellen Hill. She scored 11 of the Brave’s 23 team points at the Missouri Valley Conference meet by finishing third in the 10,000 m run and fourth in the 5,000 m run. She was the first female underclassman to compete at the NCAA Regional Championships since Hill did it in 1998 and at the race held in Austin, TX in hot and humid conditions, McMahon finished 26th in a field of 48 runners. It was the third best time of her young career at 36:27.22 but only the top 12 finishers moved on to the national meet in Eugene, OR. Earlier in the year, she was the only Brave female to compete at the prestigious Drake Relays meet and finished 15th in the 5,000 m race in 17:14.01.

Both Rothbauer and McMahon will continue to run cross country along with indoor and outdoor track for their respective teams next year.