The UW-Eau Claire women’s track and field team came away with a 12th place finish at the NCAA Nationals meet last weekend. The team totaled 12 points at the meet and had their best finish since taking fourth place in 2009.

Wartburg College (Iowa) earned 99 points and took first for the third consecutive year, while UW-Oshkosh finished in second with 48 points.

Senior Brittany Frederick said the team knew they didn’t necessarily have a great chance at winning a team title with the way everyone was seeded entering the meet.

However, she said the team kept a positive attitude and knew they could still have a strong finish at the meet if they remained on par with those marks.

“We went into it with the mentality of, ‘Do what you can for the team, and the outcome will show from that,’” she said. “I think everyone … did what they needed to do and performed really well at the meet.”

Frederick had the strongest individual performance for the Blugolds, earning All-American honors with her third place finish in the weight throw. She said it was particularly meaningful to her after making it to Nationals each year and not placing the other times.

“Going out senior year and doing as well as I did, it really meant a lot to me,” Frederick said. “It was really nice to finally come with the hardware this year.”

Senior Talisa Emberts also earned All-American honors for Eau Claire with her sixth place finish in the 400-meter dash.

She earned All-American status again as a member of the 4×400 relay team that took seventh with their time of 3:54.86, just shy of the school record. Joining her in the relay were senior Jordanne Greenup, junior Erin Schoenfelder and freshman Steph Rouse.

Senior Julia Baranek came into the meet with the third-highest high jump in the country but sustained an ankle injury a few weeks before the meet.

But she still was able to earn a seventh place finish, good enough for All-American honors.

“Going into it, I was very nervous,” she said. “I feel pretty good with what happened with what I had been dealing with the last few weeks.”

Baranek said she was a bit disappointed having to compete with the injury, but that becoming an All-American along with seeing the men take second made it a meet she won’t soon forget.

“I think everyone did great,” she said. “I’ve never had more fun at a track meet before. I’ve just never been more excited to be a Blugold.”