Central wins three league track and field honors
Central College
PELLA—Central College’s Matt Graber (senior, Newton) and Kyle Wood (junior, Newton) swept the Iowa Conference men’s track and field performer of the week honors. Graber is the field events recipient while Wood received track events recognition.
Meanwhile sophomore Felicia Coleman (Houston, Texas, J. Frank Dobie HS) is the league’s track events performer of the week for women’s track and field.
Graber captured the shot put title at the Washington Univ. (Mo.) Select Meet Saturday with a toss of 51-3, surpassing the NCAA provisional qualifying standard to make a push for a berth at the national championships in May. He also finished third in the hammer throw (160-11). A two-time all-American, Graber is receiving the honor for the first time this year. He was noted twice in 2010.
For the second consecutive week Wood was cited as the track events honoree. Wood tied an 11-year old school record in the 400-meter dash, winning the event and automatically qualifying for the NCAA championships with a time of 47.4 seconds. He was also part of the 4×100-meter relay team that improved its previous NCAA provisional-qualifying mark from earlier in the season, finishing first in 41.54 seconds. Wood then scored a come-from-behind victory in the meet’s final event, the 4×400 relay, crossing the line in 3:17.88. Wood been tabbed with this honor four times in the outdoor season and is a two-time all-American.
Coleman broke a 27-year school record in the 200 meters, winning the event in a personal best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 24.68 seconds. The previous record of 24.78 seconds, set by Nancy Cisar in 1984, won an individual NCAA title at the national meet.
Coleman also ran on the winning 4×400 relay to run a season’s best time of 3:51.92, blowing by the NCAA provisional qualifying standard (3:56). The squad also ran an NCAA provisional time in the 4×100 relay, finishing second in 48.19 seconds. It’s the first time Coleman has been cited.
The Dutch compete in the Jim Duncan Invitational at Drake University Friday and Saturday in Des Moines.
