BOWLING GREEN -- Western Michigan captured another event title but ultimately fell short of their overall goal as the track & field team took second place with a score of 89 points at the 2011 Indoor Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday afternoon.

The Broncos finished behind state rival Eastern Michigan, who won the overall title with 118 points. The Broncos finished ahead of third place Miami (81) and fourth place Kent State (76) before the point gap widened.

"It was a great competitive meet," said head coach Kelly Lyan. "I love to win but I also love to compete and that's what we did and the girls really competed  their tails off this weekend."

Iris Campbell won her first career individual MAC title, taking first place in the 400m dash with a personal-best time of 55.32 seconds. Campbell's time was the fifth best in school history, nearly surpassing Victoria Chatman's time of 55.30 for fourth place. In addition to Campbell, WMU had two other scorers in the event. Freshman Andrea Arnold finished just .04 seconds behind Campbell to take second place and junior Leya Munwam finished eighth with a time of 56.81 seconds. WMU totaled 19 points in the event.

Campbell and Arnold also teamed up to score in the 200m dash. Campbell finished in third with a school-record time of 24.28 seconds. The sophomore sprinter beat her previous school record set at the Tyson Invitational two weeks ago by .08 seconds. Arnold took sixth place to earn three points with a personal-best time of 24.97. In total, Campbell combined to score 24 points in the MAC Championship, second most only to Kent State's Diana Dumitrescu and her 27.

"Iris just had an amazing weekend," said Lycan. "To win the 400 was great, she broke the school record again in the 200 and came through big for us yesterday in the long jump. She had a tough start in the hurdles but was able to put it behind her and win the 400m dash 15 minutes later and that's really impressive."

Campbell, Arnold, Munwam and Ashley Hunault combined to take second place in the 4x400m relay with a time of 3:42.45, falling just .08 seconds shy of first place Eastern Michigan.

Hunault continued a stellar MAC Championship by taking fourth place in the triple jump with a personal-best distance of 39 feet, five inches. Freshman Chiara Allen also scored in the event, placing sixth with a personal-best distance of 38 feet, 6.25 inches.

"Ashley placed in the triple jump her freshman year and she tweaked her back early in the season so we hadn't let her compete in it yet this season," said Lycan. "She had been doing great in practice and we knew she had some big jumps in her."

Sophomore Rachel Whitley had a good day in both the mile run and in the 800m run. She took second place in the mile run with the second-fastest time in school history at 4:51.76, finishing nearly ahead of WMU Hall of Famer Caroline Mullen's time of 4:52.5. Also placing in the mile was Samantha Tomerlin, coming in sixth with a time of 4:57.68. Whitley later placed fourth in the 800m run with a time of 2:12.71, adding another five points to her total this weekend.

"Rachel ran out of gas a little at the end of the 800m race but she still hung on to get us some crucial points in fourth," added Lycan. "She has really made a great transition from her freshman year to her sophomore year and she's only going to continue getting better."

Tomerlin also scored in the 3,000m run, taking sixth with a time of 9:55.18. The senior from Allegan, Mich., scored in every event she competed in on the weekend.

"I'm really proud of Sam," added Lycan. "She ran about 48 laps around that track this weekend and its a lot of work. But to score in every event you compete in says something to the caliber of athlete she is."

"We knew we were a little short-handed missing Cara Cremeans and a three-time MAC Champion in Victoria Chatman," concluded LYcan. "I was really proud the way our youngsters and veterans stepped up and we were in it till the end."

The season is not over for the Broncos as a few student-athletes will get a chance at a last-chance meet next weekend to try to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.