Johnson, Moeller, Griffen Take Gold at Heart Championship

Maryville, Mo.–The William Penn track and field teams captured some hardware and set several new marks as they competed at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championships Friday and Saturday.

The men were sixth out of 13 teams with 75 points, while Grand View won the title with 163.5 points. On the women’s side, WPU was 11th out of 13 squads with 15 points; Central Methodist took the crown with 179 points.

The men’s trio of Showalter Johnson (So., Nassau, Bahamas, Business Management), Justin Moeller (Sr., Keota, Iowa, Psychology), and Keaten Griffen (Fr., Longview, Texas, Software Engineering) all had exceptional outings en route to league glory.

Johnson can stake claim to being the fastest runner in conference championship history as he broke not only his own school record, but also the meet record with a winning 60-meter dash time of 6.72 seconds. The sophomore now ranks fourth in the NAIA.

Moeller broke his own school record from earlier this year with 4,843 points in the heptathlon. The senior scored over 700 points in five of the seven events with a high of 841 points in the 60-meter hurdles. He now sits sixth in the nation which currently puts him in the national-qualifying field.

Griffen was also the Heart’s best pole vaulter with a height of 14-3.25.

Johnson, who has already punched his ticket to nationals in the 60, did so in the 200-meter dash (provisional standard) as well by placing third with a time of 21.86 seconds.

In addition to his heptathlon championship, Moeller was also sixth in the long jump (21-6.75) and seventh in the 60-meter hurdles (8.67, 8.52 in the prelims).

A silver medal was garnered by Tafara Hondonga (Sr., Aberdeen, S.D., Business Management) in the 400-meter dash in 49.38 seconds, while the distance medley relay crew broke its school record from one week ago with a third-place finish in 10:30.42.

Jonah Heckenberg (Jr., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management) took fourth in the 1,000-meter run in 2:31.25, while Tahj Ferguson (Sr., Hartford, Conn., Psychology) was fifth in the long jump at 22-0.25.

Max Finley (Fr., Richville, N.Y., Secondary Education) was sixth in the one-mile run (4:29.34), while the 4×800-meter relay group also took sixth in a school-record time of 8:06.96. The time betters the previous mark of 8:09.20 from 2016.

Jasper Stottlemyer (Sr., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sociology) was also sixth in the weight throw (51-11.75), while scoring points in the shot put as well (7th, 48-8).

Landon Hansen (Sr., Newton, Iowa, Political Science) just missed out in being a point-getter for WPU with a top-half placing of 11th in the shot put at 45-5.

Abigaille Batu-Tiako (Jr., Plattsburgh, N.Y., Business Management) headlined the women’s efforts as she broke her own long jump school record from 2021 (17-1.25) with a distance of 17-6.25. The junior also competed in the pentathlon and tallied 2,308 points.

Erica Martin (Jr., Detroit, Mich., Sports Management) had a slightly higher finish than her teammate by taking fourth in the shot put at 42-1.5, while the 4×400-meter relay crew was fifth in 4:14.01.

Raven Williams (Grad., Las Vegas, Nev., Master’s of Organizational Leadership) also added points for the Statesmen as she was seventh in the 400 in 59.89 seconds.

“We were in the hunt to place a few spots higher on the men’s side, but just could not get the points we needed,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “Our women’s team worked hard as well and would have liked to have scored more points for a higher finish. However, any time you break five school records and win three titles is pretty good.”

Next Up: William Penn’s national qualifiers will travel to Brookings, S.D. from March 2-4 to compete at the NAIA Indoor National Championship.

Posted by on Feb 20 2023. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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