Clean Sweep for Green at Conference Championships
William Penn University Athletics
Sterling, Ill.–Gabriel Green (Jr., Anniston, Ala., Anniston HS) produced amazing numbers on an otherwise disappointing day as the Statesmen track and field team competed at the Midwest Collegiate Conference Indoor Championships Saturday.
Green recorded a sweep of the sprinting events, while William Penn was fifth out of eight teams with 67 points. Grand View defended its league title with 207 points, holding off runner-up Ashford (174 points).
The junior won the 55-meter dash in 6.42 seconds, the 200 in 22.30 seconds, and the 400 in 50.50 seconds.
His 55 and 200 times were both meet records, while his 55 also tied the school record set by Carlos Stepter last year.
AJ Michael Rachford (Fr., Agency, Cardinal HS) may have only placed eighth in the 55-meter hurdles, but his preliminary time made his day a memorable one. The freshman’s time of 7.98 seconds broke a school record previously held by teammate Sam Taylor (Fr., Eddyville, Eddyville-Blakesburg HS) at 8.07 seconds.
Jalen Wilson (Fr., Desoto, Texas, Duncanville HS) posted the program’s lone runner-up finish, taking second in the long jump at 22-4.25.
The 4×400-meter relay team of Green, Josh Roudabush (Sr., Brooklyn, BGM HS), Blake Washington (So., Knoxville, Knoxville HS), and Dexter Jordan (So., St. Louis, Mo., Forrest Park CC) brought home bronze in a time of 3:31.47.
The 4×8 squad was then fourth, crossing the line in 8:42.21. The group included Tylor Hoyle (Fr., Mount Pleasant, Mount Pleasant HS), Josh Molyneux (Jr., Deep River, Tri-County HS), Nick Thomas (Fr., Salmon, Idaho, Salmon HS), and Deane Wichelt (Fr., Durant, Durant HS).
Taylor and Washington both had a pair of scoring showings on Saturday. Taylor was sixth in the high jump at 6-2.75 and seventh in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.01 seconds, while Washington was sixth in the 800-meter run (2:04.78) and seventh in the 600-meter run (1:27.16).
The distance medley relay team of Thomas, Molyneux, Alex Courtney (Fr., West Des Moines, Valley HS), and Quintin Marshall (So., St. Louis, Mo., McCluer South Berkeley HS) tallied sixth-place points in a time of 11:59.31.
Finally, seventh-place performances came by the way of Terrance Conway (So., Los Angeles, Calif., West Los Angeles CC) in the 200-meter dash (23.15 seconds) and Cody Hill (Fr., New Orleans, La., De Lasalle HS) in the triple jump (39-11.25).
William Penn posted a handful of other top-ten, non-scoring attempts as well.
Thomas, in the 800-meter run (2:06.19), Trevor Volz (Fr., Adel, ADM HS), in the 55-meter hurdles (8.19 seconds), and Nick Reynolds (Sr., Riverton, Utah, Iowa Western CC), in the 3,000-meter run (9:39.37), were all ninth in their respective events.
John Kilgore (So., Los Angeles, Calif., West Los Angeles CC) was also ninth in the 200-meter dash (23.38 seconds) as well as tenth in the 55-meter dash (6.74 seconds).
Next: A few chosen Statesmen will travel to Columbia, Mo. next Friday to compete in the Missouri Collegiate Challenge.
For his efforts on Saturday, Gabriel Green was named MCC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.
