Three Crowned, West Again Breaks Record as WPU Places Fourth at Heart Meet
Fayette, Mo.–The William Penn men’s track and field team collected a trio of titles that propelled it to a high finish as the Statesmen competed at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship Friday and Saturday.
WPU finished fourth out of 12 teams with 87 points, while Central Methodist claimed the team crown with 196 points.
Xzavion West (Jr., Guthrie, Ky., Undecided), Showalter Johnson (Sr., Nassau, Bahamas, New Media), and D’Artagnon Beaver (Sr., Rockford, Ill., Human Services) all won event championships, while numerous others also scored points for the navy and gold.
West topped the crew by taking the hammer throw gold with a new school record of 193-9. Johnson hit the line first in the 100-meter dash in 10.41 seconds, while Beaver claimed the 5,000-meter run title in a time of 15:05.24. Johnson’s and Beaver’s league titles are their second in their events.
West also put up points in the discus (3rd, 155-0) and shot put (6th, 49-3), while Johnson finished third in the 200-meter dash in 21.38 seconds.
Although William Penn did not win the triple jump, it did have a trio of scorers with Micah Mills (So., Houston, Texas, Psychology) taking third (46-9.5), Anthony Weaver (So., Demopolis, Ala., Mechanical Engineering) placing fourth (46-4), and John Webb (So., Dothan, Ala., Mechanical Engineering) finishing sixth (45-3).
Nick Marshall (Jr., Glenpool, Okla., Human Services) gave the navy and gold two of the league’s top three hammer throwers as he was third at 171-3. He also just missed scoring in the shot put (45-6.25) and javelin (149-6), placing 11th in both events.
Weaver was fourth in the long jump (22-2.25) as well, while Carson Springer (So., Grimes, Iowa, Business Management) also ended up fourth, doing so in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:53.63).
Ruben Perez-Rodriguez (Sr., San Antonio, Texas, Wellness and Recreation) was a few spots behind Springer in the steeplechase, finishing eighth at 10:45.91.
The 4×800-meter relay squad placed third (7:44.69), while the 4×100-meter relay crew took fourth (42.42).
Other high finishers who missed out on scoring included Brandon Williams (Sr., Fountain, Colo., Engineering Technology) (9th, 800-meter run, 1:56.14), Andrew Miller (So., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science) (9th, 1,500-meter run, 4:04.15), Fredrick Kolla Nquimdo (So., Wheaton, Md., Secondary Education) (10th, hammer, 144-1), and Ethan Varvelo (Sr., Channelview, Texas, Engineering Technology) (12th, 1,500-meter run, 4:06.61).
“We were battling some injuries, but came together and still produced some great performances,” Head Coach Victoria Vinokur said. “It hurt to not finish in the top three, but we fought until the very end. We had multiple event champions and some amazing performances, so we are very proud of what we accomplished.”
