Edwards Claims Track AOY Honor to Guide WPU at MCC Meet
William Penn University Athletics
Sterling, Ill.–Alex Edwards (Jr., Knoxville, Iowa, Secondary Education) had a motor that never slowed Friday as he paced the Statesmen men’s indoor track and field team to a strong showing at the Midwest Collegiate Conference Championships.
William Penn was third out of six teams with 123.5 points, while Grand View walked off with the team title with 211 points. Including last year’s outdoor meet, the Statesmen have won team bronze in three straight league championships, but in trailing second-place St. Ambrose by just 35 points, it is the best effort in some time.
Edwards earned the MCC’s Track Athlete of the Year accolade with a trio of golds. The junior won the 400-meter dash in 50.43 seconds and the 800 in 2:00.34, but his 600 effort was the best of all. He ran away from the field and defended last year’s title in a meet record and school-record time of 1:20.49.
Lance Maxwell of Grand View was named MCC Field AOY, while his head coach Jerry Monner was tabbed as MCC Coach of the Year.
Sam Taylor (Jr., Eddyville, Iowa, Industrial Technology) was a huge contributor as well with two titles and a bronze. The junior won the 55-meter hurdles for the second-straight year in a new program-record time of 7.76 seconds. He was also first in the long jump at 21-2.75 and third in the high jump at 6-0.75.
Combined, the duo accounted for 56 points in their individual competitions.
“Alex and Sam were simply beasts today,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said.
A half-dozen other athletes sporting navy and gold uniforms were multiple scorers as well on Friday.
Chris Gossett (Fr., Park Forest, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) was second in the triple jump (43-3.75) and sixth in the long jump (19-9), while Kalob Gist (So., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Business Management) had a silver in the shot put (48-8.75) and an eighth-place showing in the weight throw (40-2). Fellow thrower Derek Seddon (Fr., Knoxville, Iowa, Physical Education) was more balanced with a fourth in both the shot put (48-2.5) and weight throw (50-4.5).
Yonas Desta highlighted WPU’s distance running with two fourth-place tallies in the 3,000-meter run (9:31.68) and 5,000-meter run (16:17.55). Mid-to-long distance runner Nick Thomas (Jr., Salmon, Idaho, Physical Education) got on the board twice as well in the 800-meter run (6th, 2:04.36) and one-mile run (7th, 4:40.56).
Elnimair Barakat (So., Aurora, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) was the Statesmen’s best sprinter, recording a fourth in the 200-meter dash (23.33 seconds) and a seventh in the 55-meter dash (6.78 seconds).
Joshua Rankin (Fr., University Park, Ill., Undecided) had a sixth-place triple jump of 40-8.25, while Blake Washington (Sr., Knoxville, Iowa, Public Accounting) crossed the line in the 600-meter run in eighth (1:28.72). The senior’s 800-meter run time of 2:08.36 was just outside of scoring points in tenth place.
William Penn also managed to post points in the relay races, taking fourth in the 4×400 (3:32.50), fifth in the Distance Medley (12:03.94), and sixth in the 4×800 (9:44.13).
“This is the proudest I have been of our teams,” Friesen said. “Our men battled St. Ambrose all day for second place, but in the last two events they pulled away. It was a terrific effort from our men and this is the closest we have been to second place since I have been here. It shows we are closing the gap and heading in the right direction.”
Next: William Penn travels to Dubuque next Saturday to compete in the Dubuque Spartan Invitational.
