Williams Wins Shot Put Again as WPU Competes at Heart Championships
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Crete, Neb.–For the second-consecutive time, Shelbie Williams (So., Hedrick, Iowa, Elementary Education) launched the top shot put in the league as the William Penn track and field teams competed at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday.
Williams won the shot put event with a toss of 42-6. The sophomore, who also won the outdoor title last spring, tied the school record in the process, matching Meaghan Foster’s mark from 2015.
Her crown helped the Statesmen women to ninth place out of 11 squads with 34 points. MidAmerica Nazarene led the standings with 177 points.
Kayla Music (Fr., Corpus Christi, Texas) narrowly missed joining Williams on the top of the podium as she twice placed in the top four in the sprints. The freshman took second in the 200-meter dash in 25.95 seconds and fourth in the 60-meter dash in 7.92 seconds (7.88 in prelims).
More impressively for Music, however, was the fact that she did match Williams with a pair of new program records. She is the first WPU female to ever break the 26-second mark in the 200.
Both individuals are scratching at the door for nationals. Williams is just 5.75 inches short, while Music is .03 seconds away in the 60 and .05 away in the 200.
Elayna VanArsdale (Jr., Bensalem, Pa., Secondary Education) had two solid outings as well, ending up fifth in the weight throw at 48-0 and 10th in the shot put at 37-3.25.
The team’s 4×400-meter relay team was fifth at 4:18.40, while Ashley Omoregie (Fr., Old Bridge, N.J.) also scored points, placing sixth in the 600-meter run in 1:43.05.
Asia Laudermilch (Jr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Physical Education) just came up short of adding to William Penn’s point total as she was ninth in the 60 at 8.12.
The WPU men finished seventh overall in the 11-team race with 36 points, while MNU completed the sweep with 174 points.
Although no gold was captured, two individuals snatched silver, including Sage Ehresman (Jr., Sully, Iowa, Exercise Science) in the shot put at 49-7 and Mofiyinfoluwa Alade (So., Hoffman Estates, Ill.) in the high jump at 6-7.5. Alade was also eighth in the 60-meter hurdles in 9.12 seconds.
Chris Leiba (Jr., Olympia, Wash., Business Management) was also a two-time point-gatherer, finishing fourth in both the 60 (6.97) and 200 (22.70). Joel Brown (Fr., Columbus, Ga.) joined him as a Statesmen scorer in the 60 at 7.07, while placing 10th in the 200 at 23.07 as well.
Brenden Foster (Jr., Rock Hill, S.C., Biology), in sixth in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.77, and Matthew Cuthbert (Sr., Yucaipa, Calif., Sociology), in eighth in the shot put at 46-3.5, tallied points as well.
The 4×4 crew was sixth in 3:29.91 and the 4×8 was eighth in 9:04.44. James Barrett (Fr., St. Louis, Mo., Mechanical Engineering) came up one spot shy of giving the navy and gold more points as he wound up ninth in the 3,000-meter race walk in a time of 19:31.81.
“We had plenty of ups and downs for both of our squads the last two days,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “Our scores unfortunately do not reflect how hard these young men and women worked, especially our underclassmen.”
Next Up: A selected few individuals will look to qualify or possibly better their qualifying marks as they travel to Waverly next Saturday to compete in the Wartburg Invitational.
