4×1 Qualifies, Statesmen Win Three Events at CMU Invite
Oskaloosa–The 4×100-meter relay squad will compete for a national title in May as the William Penn men’s track and field team competed at the Central Methodist Invitational Friday and Saturday.
As a team, WPU placed fourth out of 21 scoring squads with 70 points, while host Central Methodist took the team crown with 140 points.
The 4×1 crew won the crown with an automatic-qualifying time of 41.55 seconds. The group includes Nick Richardson-Jackson (Sr., Germantown, Md.), Showalter Johnson (Fr., Nassau, Bahamas), Joel Brown (Sr., Columbus, Ga., Engineering Technology), and Torian Kingston (Sr., Queens, N.Y., Sports Management).
Kingston was a two-time winner at the Invitational, also taking the 200-meter dash title in 21.84 seconds. Jaelen Love (Sr., Crown Point, Ind., Secondary Education) was also in the top 10 (sixth) in the 200 in a time of 22.20.
Justin Moeller (Jr., Keota, Iowa, Psychology) claimed a top spot as well, taking the long jump title at 23-0.75. He was also third in the high jump at 6-0.75.
Johnson narrowly missed a second gold as he was second in the 100-meter dash in 10.68 seconds. Brown joined Johnson in the 100’s top five with a time of 10.85 seconds.
Tom Nyandoro (Fr., Wake Forest, N.C., Computer Science) earned the next-best finish, finishing fourth in the triple jump at 43-6.5, while Ethan Harrington (Jr., Melcher, Iowa, Industrial Technology) and Jace Lukefahr (Jr., Newton, Iowa) were both twice high placers. Harrington was eighth in the high jump at 5-7 and ninth in the javelin at 132-6. Lukefahr took 10th in the discus (107-6) and 13th in the shot put (40-7.75).
Additional point-getters were Vernon Trozzi (Jr., Hesperia, Calif., Exercise Science) in the 5,000-meter run (sixth, 16:16.41), Jonah Heckenberg (So., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management) in the 800-meter run (seventh, 2:02.71), and Brandon Williams (Fr., Fountain, Colo., Civil Engineering) also in the 800 (eighth, 2:03.06).
Jaden Loveless (Fr., Des Moines, Iowa) was in the top 10 in the 400-meter dash (ninth, 51.44), while Axel Vazquez (Jr., Wray, Colo., Sports Management) (16th in the 800 in 2:07.75) and Kenneth Bolton III (Sr., South Riding, Va., Business Management) (21st in the 1,500-meter run in 4:29.41) both had top-half finishes.
“It was a really good day with a lot of PRs in numerous events,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “The coaches have done a great job of getting the team prepared each week and progressing with better times and distances each week.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Dubuque next Saturday to compete in the Dubuque Open.
