Three Qualify, Burt Breaks School Record at Heart Championships

Oskaloosa–The Statesmen track and field teams punched a few more tickets to nationals as they competed at the Heart of America Athletic Conference teams Championships Friday and Saturday.

Both squads placed ninth out of 13 teams with the men notching 50 points and the women tallying 27 points. Grand View swept the team crowns as its men had 250 points and the women finished with 163 points.

On a weekend where unfortunately no titles were won, the navy and gold still had plenty to celebrate with three individuals qualifying for the NAIA National Championship later this month in Gulf Shores, Ala.

Joel Brown (Sr., Columbus, Ga., Engineering Technology) hit the provisional standard in the 100-meter dash with a preliminary time of 10.62 seconds, while Jaelen Love (Sr., Crown Point, Ind., Secondary Education) eclipsed the automatic standard in the 200-meter dash prelims in 21.31 seconds.

Both paled in comparison, however, to the effort by Phoebe Burt (Fr., Coralville, Iowa) as she not only met the provisional-qualifying mark in the discus, but also broke the school record with a toss of 141-6. It tops the old distance of 135-4, thrown by Rachel Butler in 2011.

Brown and Love each entered their final rounds in first place, but ultimately both were denied gold; Brown finished second and Love was third. Brown also took sixth in the 200 (21.97) and Love was 10th in the 100 (10.97).

Burt finished fourth in the discus, while also placing 11th in the shot put at 36-11.

Loubert Dagrin (So., Miami, Fla., Sociology) joined his male teammates with a near miss. After recording the top time in the 110-meter hurdle prelims with a season-best 14.11, he was unable to match that performance and took home the silver in 14.68.

Jasper Stottlemyer (Sr., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sociology) and Justin Moeller (Jr., Keota, Iowa, Psychology) were both two-time point-scorers at the Championships. Stottlemyer was fourth in the hammer (166-9) and fifth in the shot put (45-8), while Moeller ended up fifth in the long jump (22-6.5) and seventh in the triple jump (43-0.25).

Yasin Mohammed (Sr., Laurel, Md.) collected fifth-place points in the triple jump (43-9.75) and Torian Kingston (Sr., Queens, N.Y., Sports Management) produced an eighth-place showing the 200 (23.52).

The 4×100-meter relay crew was fourth in 42.19 seconds as well.

The navy and gold posted a handful of performances that just fell outside of the top eight for points. Nick Richardson-Jackson (Sr., Germantown, Md.), in the 100 (10.93), and Jaden Loveless (Fr., Des Moines, Iowa), in the 400 (50.81), were both ninth, while Vernon Trozzi (Jr., Hesperia, Calif., Exercise Science) finished 10th in the 10,000-meter run in 33:43.73.

Jonah Heckenberg (So., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management) crossed the line in 11th in the 1,500-meter run (4:11.46), Jace Lukefahr (Jr., Newton, Iowa) was 12th in the shot put (42-2), and Brandon Williams (Fr., Fountain, Colo., Civil Engineering) was 13th in the 800-meter run (2:00.67).

In addition to Burt’s efforts, WPU came up with a handful of scoring performances on the women’s side.

Leading the way was Raven Williams (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev.) and Abigaille Batu-Tiako (So., Plattsburgh, N.Y.). Williams was fourth in the 400 (59.40) and sixth in the 200 (25.79), while Batu-Tiako took fourth in the long jump (17-7.5).

Salima Omari (So., Iowa City, Iowa) launched her shot put a length of 39-0.25 to take seventh, while DeAvae Adderley (Fr., Nassau, Bahamas) finished eighth in the 400 (1:01.26). The freshman was also 10th in the 200 (25.91).

The 4×1 (sixth, 50.09) and 4×4 (eighth, 4:19.17) garnered points, while Delana Jordan (Jr., Addison, Texas, Business Management) earned two points for a seventh-place showing in the 10,000-meter run.

Danisha Washington (Sr., Peoria, Ill.) had a top-10 outing as well in the 100 (10th, 12.54).

“I am not disappointed in our efforts, but sad that we could not do what we are capable of,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “We had a lot of PRs and tallied a few more national qualifiers, so we have a lot of reasons to hold our heads up.”

Next Up: While it is not yet on the schedule, William Penn will likely compete in one last meet before heading to Alabama for nationals.