Central’s Coleman, Wood win league honors again

Central College

PELLA—For the fourth consecutive week, the Central College men’s and women’s track and field squads have an athlete cited for Iowa Conference performer of the week honors.

Sophomore Felicia Coleman (Houston, Texas, J. Frank Dobie HS) is the women’s track events athlete of the week while junior Kyle Wood (Newton) is the men’s track athlete.

Competing on the 4×400-meter relay at the Jim Duncan Invitational, Coleman took runner-up honors in the event with a record-breaking time of 3:50.16. The finish was almost a full second faster than Central’s previous record (3:51.04) set in 2008. The mark is the third-best in the nation and just six-hundredths of a second from NCAA-automatic qualifier status. The squad improved their previous NCAA-provisional time of 3:51.92.

Coleman also posted a career-best performance in the 100 meters, winning the event in 12.34 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second off the NCAA provisional qualifying time. She placed third in the 4×100 relay, crossing the line in 48.85 seconds.

This is the second straight week Coleman has received the honor.

Wood captured the 4×400 relay with a come-from-behind finish of 3:18.13. He also placed second in the 400 meters with a time of 49.25 seconds. He holds the top 400-meters time in the nation with his Washington Univ. (Mo.) Select Meet finish of 47.40 seconds, reaching NCAA automatic-qualifier status.

This is the third consecutive week Wood has received the honor and his fifth overall.

Both squads will play host to the Central Open Thursday in Pella.