Statesmen Qualifiers Just Miss Stand at Nationals

Yankton, S.D.–For the first time in several campaigns, the William Penn track and field teams were not able to bring home any hardware as they competed at the NAIA Indoor National Championship Wednesday through Saturday.

Men’s high jumper Mofiyinfoluwa Alade (Sr., Hoffman Estates, Ill., Exercise Science) was in action, as was the women’s 4×400-meter relay team composed of Michaela Kmiec (So., Centerville, Texas, Exercise Science), Shaniah Newby (So., Twentynine Palms, Calif., Nursing), Ashley Omoregie (Jr., Old Bridge, N.J., Biology), and Raven Williams (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.).

On Wednesday, the ladies hit the track for the preliminaries. The team, unfortunately, did not qualify for the finals, posting a time of 4:04.75, which placed William Penn 14th out of the 16 squads in the field.

Southeastern (Fla.) won the prelims at 3:53.91 and then wrapped up the title with a finals time of 3:49.12.

Alade then attempted to collect his second All-America honor, having also placed fourth at the 2019 indoor meet. The senior hit the same mark (6-5.25) as the eighth-place finisher Wyatt Loga of Concordia (Neb.), but it took him two tries to get there, while Loga needed only one. Therefore Loga won the tiebreaker for eighth and Alade was ninth, just one spot off the podium.

Shandon Reitzell of Midland (Neb.) claimed the national championship at 6-11.75.

William Penn’s streak of national tournament appearances with an All-American ends at a record 11-straight meets. The record began in the 2015 indoor season and included 15 events (18 All-Americans).

“Although we were not able to keep the All-America streak alive, it was still a great competition for us,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “I am extremely proud of their efforts.”

Indiana Tech completed the sweep of team national titles, winning the men’s crown with 51.5 points and the women’s crown with 111 points.