William Penn Snatches Silver at Heart Meet
Baldwin City, Kan.–Four titles and a huge number of other scoring performances led the Statesmen men’s track and field team to a second-place finish at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship Friday and Saturday.
As a team, WPU placed second out of 12 squads with 117 points, while Central Methodist took home the trophy with 154.5 points. It marks the highest league finish for the Statesmen since taking second (indoor) in 2017. The navy and gold were third at the indoor championship earlier this season.
The quartet of event crowns including a pair by D’Artagnon Beaver (Jr., Rockford, Ill., Human Services). The junior won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a school-record time of 9:23.80, while also taking the gold in the 5,000-meter run in 15:27.13. He broke his own program mark (from earlier this year) in the steeplechase.
Showalter Johnson (Jr., Nassau, Bahamas, New Media) earned the unofficial title of Fastest Runner at the Championship by taking the 100-meter dash title in 10.40 seconds. The junior was also second in the 200-meter dash in 21.58 seconds.
Brandon Williams (Jr., Fountain, Colo., Civil Engineering) headed the 800-meter run field at 1:54.10, and Anthony Weaver (Fr., Demopolis, Ala., Mechanical Engineering) was the Heart’s best triple jumper with a winning jump of 47-7.
Jonah Heckenberg (Sr., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management) almost joined the quartet in the winner’s circle as he placed second in the 1,500-meter run (4:02.66). He was also eighth in the 800 (1:58.11).
Heckenberg, Williams, and Beaver teamed up with Andrew Miller (Fr., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science) for a big showing in the 4×800-meter relay. The crew settled for second at 7:43.70, falling by just .01 seconds, but still managing to hit the NAIA’s provisional standard.
Nick Marshall (Jr., Glenpool, Okla., Human Services) also produced a silver in the hammer throw at 184-8. The junior tossed the shot put as well and ended up seventh at 46-11.75.
John Webb (Fr., Dothan, Ala., Mechanical Engineering) was next for William Penn, finishing third in the triple jump at 45-10, while also posting a 10th-place effort in the 400-meter dash (50.26).
Xzavion West (So., Guthrie, Ky., Undecided) had three top-10 outings (two times scoring points), led by a fourth-place finish in the hammer (175-3) and a sixth-place shot put (47-3). The sophomore just missed scoring in the discus with a throw of 134-5 that was good enough for 10th.
Micah Mills (Fr., Houston, Texas, Psychology) tacked on another top-five placement, doing so in the triple jump (45-2.25), while the 4×100-meter relay (42.45) and 4×400-meter relay crews (3:23.92) were both fifth as well.
Tahj Ferguson (Sr., Hartford, Conn., Psychology) led the remaining point-getters as he finished sixth in the long jump at 22-9.25. Miller was seventh in the steeplechase (9:53.36), and Jeremiah Conteh (Sr., Shorewood, Wis., English) was eighth in the hammer (160-9).
A trio of Statesmen athletes narrowly missed putting additional points on the board as they all placed ninth in their competitions. The trio included Tom Nyandoro (Jr., Wake Forest, N.C., Information Technology) in the 110-meter hurdles (15.46), Jalen Morris (Fr., Grimes, Iowa, Business Management) in the long jump (22-5), and Steven Murray (Sr., Missouri Valley, Iowa, Sociology) in the shot put (45-9.75).
“Proud. A lot of other words come to mind, but proud is the one that encompasses all of them,” Head Coach Victoria Vinokur said. “This men’s squad COMPETED this weekend in every event group. To think this team was seventh last year, was slated to get fifth, and we got second. This men’s crew has worked all season for this and this was the cherry on top.”
