Central’s Wood, Miller named male athletes of the week

Central College

PELLA—Central College juniors and Iowa Conference outdoor track and field MVP’s Kyle Wood (Newton) and Ethan Miller (Seymour) are the league’s male athletes of the week.

It’s the first time Wood has received male athlete of the week distinction but his seventh consecutive week, eighth overall, being cited as the track events performer of the week.

Wood, the league’s track MVP, won four titles at the conference meet last weekend in Mount Vernon, racking up 25 points for the Dutch. He captured the 200 meters in 22 seconds and the 400 meters for the second straight year in 49.04 seconds. Wood is the first runner to sweep the two events in the same year since 2005. Wood was also a part of the winning 4×100-meter relay (41.82 seconds) and the 4×400 relay (3:20.65).

This is the fifth time Miller has been cited as the male athlete of the week, third this season, and his sixth time receiving recognition as the field events athlete. Miller is the league’s field MVP for the second straight year.

Miller accumulated 48 points for Central at the conference meet. He won his second consecutive title in both the long jump with an NCAA-provisional qualifying mark of 23-8.25 and the pole vault with a 14-7.25 mark. Miller also claimed titles in the triple jump (46-2.75) and the 110 hurdles (14.69 seconds) and finished third in the high jump (6-6).

The Dutch cruised to their third consecutive league title with 250 points, breaking the previous scoring record (228 points) set by Central’s squad in 2000. It’s their 13th title in 21 years and coach Joe Dunham was again named the coach of the year.

Central has a chance to improve its marks before the NCAA Division III Championships slated for May 26-28 in Delaware, Ohio. A partial squad will travel to the North Central (Ill.) Gregory Invitational in Naperville, Ill., as well as the Augustana (Ill.) Twilight Qualifier in Rock Island, Ill., Thursday and Friday.