Handful in Tar Heel State This Week for NAIA Nationals

Oskaloosa–Several individuals from the William Penn men’s track and field team will look to record podium-worthy performances as they compete at the 74th Annual NAIA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field National Championship Wednesday through Friday.

The event will be held at Karl Straus Track in Asheville, N.C.

Four individuals, who have qualified in five total events, will join one relay squad at the Championship.

Wednesday

Xzavion West (Sr., Guthrie, Ky., Psychology) will kick things off by competing in the hammer throw at 8 a.m. (all times are Central). The senior enters with the third-best toss in the field at 203-11.

The 4×100-meter relay team of Usir McClellan (Fr., St. Petersburg, Fla., Information Technology), Youssef Hamed (Jr., Al Wakrah, Qatar, Business Management), K’Juan Johnson (Fr., Nassau, Bahamas, Business Management), and Travaughn Robbins-Hall (So., Lauderhill, Fla., Software Engineering) heads into its preliminary-round race with the 26th-best time of 40.92 seconds. The prelims are set for 2:30 p.m.

Keena Taylor (Fr., St. Petersburg, Fla., Business Management) will follow in the 200-meter dash prelims at 4:35 p.m. The freshman is seventh in the field at 20.95 seconds.

Andrew Miller (Jr., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science) closes out the opening day at 6:55 p.m. with the 3,000-meter steeplechase prelims. The junior heads into the competition seventh in the NAIA with a time of 9:13.51.

Thursday

West’s second event of the week is the shot put, which will be contested at 12 p.m. He holds the 18th-best mark of 53-11.75.

Koby Higginbotham (Fr., Knoxville, Iowa, Exercise Science) finally hits the track at 1:15 p.m. for his 110-meter hurdles preliminary race. The freshman has produced the nation’s second-fastest showing this spring (13.93 seconds).

Friday

If individuals move past their preliminary rounds, the finals will be held on Friday.