Three Qualify, One Record Broken at Season-Opening Frozen Bee Classic

Davenport–The William Penn track and field teams were already in midseason form as they opened the indoor campaign at the St. Ambrose Frozen Bee Classic Saturday.

Behind three national qualifiers, the Statesmen men topped the seven-team standings with 176 points, while host St. Ambrose was second with 130.5 points.

On the women’s side, WPU was fourth out of seven squads with 68 points; Grand View claimed the team crown with 132 points.

The trio of Loubert Dagrin (So., Miami, Fla., Sociology), Torian Kingston (Jr., Queens, N.Y., Sports Management), and Justin Moeller (Jr., Keota, Iowa, Psychology) all garnered golds in their respective events.

Dagrin did so with an automatic-qualifying time of 8.22 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. While that was actually a new school record, his prelim time was even better at 8.10 seconds. He breaks Mason Aschenbrenner’s program mark of 8.31 seconds set in 2020.

Kingston headlined the 200-meter dash field by also hitting the ‘A’ standard with a time of 22.16 seconds. Moeller’s long jump of 23-2 met the provisional standard as well. All three have now punched their tickets for the NAIA National Championship in Brookings, S.D. from March 3-5.

Three other Statesmen also collected event titles Saturday, beginning with Showalter Johnson (Fr., Nassau, Bahamas) posting a 60-meter dash time of 6.941 seconds, clipping teammate Joel Brown (Sr., Columbus, Ga., Engineering Technology) by .001 seconds (6.942) for the win.

William Penn showed strong depth in the middle-distance and distance events as Brandon Williams (Fr., Fountain, Colo., Civil Engineering) won the 800-meter run in 2:06.08 and William De Jesus (So., Homestead, Fla., Biology) claimed the 3,000-meter run crown in 9:55.81. Williams finished ninth in the 400-meter dash as well in 53.45 seconds.

Following Williams in the 800 was Kenneth Bolton III (Sr., South Riding, Va., Business Management) in second (2:08.36), Ethan Varvelo (Fr., Channelview, Texas) in third (2:08.93), Ruben Perez-Rodriguez (So., San Antonio, Texas, Business Management) in fourth (2:09.06), and Jonah Heckenberg (So., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management) in fifth (2:10.75).

Although they did not win the one-mile run competition, several members of the navy and gold were in the mix with Heckenberg taking second in 4:43.80 and Perez-Rodriguez ending up third in 4:44.81.

Also picking up silvers on Saturday were Jaelen Love (Sr., Crown Point, Ind., Secondary Education) in the 200 (22.52) and Yasin Mohammed (Sr., Laurel, Md.) in the triple jump (43-11.25). Mohamed doubled up in the top five with a fifth-place showing in the long jump at 21-0.

The 4×400-meter relay team posted a bronze finish in a time of 3:31.22, while Josh Ogden (Jr., Sarasota, Fla.) was fifth in the 200 in 23.09 seconds. Malik Allen (Fr., Waukee, Iowa), in seventh place in the 60 (7.21), and Jaden Loveless (Fr., Des Moines, Iowa), in eighth place in the 400 (53.12), scored points for WPU as well. Loveless narrowly missed scoring in two races, ending up ninth in the 200 in 23.78 seconds.

Top-half placings were also produced by Jeremy Frederick (Fr., Oviedo, Fla.) in the 200 (11th, 24.22) and Jamiah Foster (Fr., Rantoul, Ill.) in the 400 (14th, 54.85).

Michaela Kmiec (Jr., Centerville, Texas, Exercise Science) joined her male counterparts with a golden effort as she won the women’s 800 in 2:45.00.

Raven Williams (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev.) and Delana Jordan (Jr., Addison, Texas, Business Management) fell just shy of victories as each had a pair of top-three performances. Williams was second in the 200 (26.90) and third in the 400 (1:01.93), while Jordan was second in the mile (6:20.03) and third in the 800 (2:53.19).

Danisha Washington (Sr., Peoria, Ill.) was a member of the bronze club as well, finishing third in the 60 in 8.12 seconds.

Katherine Hunter (Sr., Bloomfield, Iowa) was next for William Penn, placing fifth in the 60 hurdles in 10.00 seconds, while Breana Roberts (Jr., Saint John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, Biology) was sixth in the 60 (8.22) and Alexandra Rose (So., Quincy, Ill.) was seventh in the 60 (8.31).

Two additional top-half efforts came from Roberts (11th, 28.12) and Tabitha Rogers (Fr., Venice, Calif.) (12th, 28.17) in the 200.

“It was a really good day by both of our squads,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “I am very pleased with our efforts, including having three national qualifiers and a new school record in our first meet of the season.”

Next Up: William Penn is off until after the holiday break, returning to action again in Davenport on January 15 for the St. Ambrose Battle in the Hive.