Large Crew Competing at Nationals
Oskaloosa–An impressive squadron of Statesmen athletes will face the best in the nation as they compete at the 72nd Annual Men’s and 43rd Annual Women’s Track and Field Outdoor National Championships Wednesday through Friday.
The Championship will be in Marion, Ind. on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University.
William Penn will compete in 10 different events with 13 total individuals, beginning with Nick Marshall (Jr., Glenpool, Okla., Human Services) in the men’s hammer throw at 10:30 a.m. (Central) on Wednesday. Marshall enters ranked 13th with a toss of 184-8.
Later in the evening on Wednesday, WPU will battle three more times. Abigaille Batu-Tiako (Sr., Plattsburgh, N.Y., Business Management), who is ranked 17th at 19-0, will be in the women’s long jump at 5 p.m.
The men’s 4×800-meter relay team is also in action in the preliminaries at 5:50 p.m. The squad, which consists of D’Artagnon Beaver (Jr., Rockford, Ill., Human Services), Brandon Williams (Jr., Fountain, Colo., Civil Engineering), Jonah Heckenberg (Sr., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management), Andrew Miller (Fr., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science), and alternate Ethan Varvelo (Jr., Channelview, Texas, Engineering Technology), enters with the 22nd-best time of 7:43.70.
Just over an hour later (6:55 p.m.), Beaver will run again, doing so in the 3,000-meter steeplechase; he is ranked 28th at 9:23.80.
Thursday will be another busy for the navy and gold. Tahj Ferguson (Sr., Hartford, Conn., Psychology), in the men’s long jump, and Erica Martin (Sr., Detroit, Mich., Sports Management), in the women’s shot put, both compete at 1:30 p.m. Ferguson is tied for 19th at 23-9, while Martin is also 19th at 44-11.
Williams returns to the oval on Thursday at 1:50 p.m. to compete in the men’s 800-meter run; the junior is tied for 14th at 1:51.88.
Showalter Johnson (Jr., Nassau, Bahamas, New Media) will wrap up Thursday by running in the fastest race of the meet–the 100-meter dash–at 2:40 p.m. He is currently tied for 12th with a time of 10.37 seconds.
Phoebe Burt (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa, Sociology) starts off the final day of competition by throwing the women’s discus at 12 p.m. She is ranked 21st in the field at 144-8.
Anthony Weaver (Fr., Demopolis, Ala., Mechanical Engineering) is WPU’s last competitor, battling in the men’s triple jump at 12:30 p.m. The freshman is 15th among all jumpers at 47-11.
