WPU Enjoys Successful Weekend at Conference Venue
Maryville, Mo.–The William Penn men’s indoor track and field team added to its national-qualifying list, while also knocking off school records as it battled at the Northwest Missouri State Bearcat Invitational Friday and Saturday.
Headlined by a striking performance from Koby Higginbotham (Fr., Knoxville, Iowa, Exercise Science), two programs records were set and the list heading to nationals next week grew by two.
Higginbotham won the 60-meter hurdles with a new school-record time of 7.92 seconds. His ‘A’ standard showing now ranks second in the NAIA. The freshman went lower than the previous program mark of 7.94 seconds by Loubert Dagrin in 2022.
Keena Taylor (Fr., St. Petersburg, Fla., Business Management) and Fredrick Kolla Nguimdo (Jr., Wheaton, Md., Secondary Education) both punched their tickets for Florida with ‘B’ standard performances.
Taylor finished second in the 200-meter dash with a new school-record timing of 21.61 seconds, bettering the previous record of 21.75 seconds by Showalter Johnson (2023). He was also 18th in the 60-meter dash in 6.92 seconds.
Kolla Nguimdo joined the ever-growing nationals grouping by hitting the provisional standard in the weight throw at 57-5.5. He took seventh place in that event, while his teammate and fellow national qualifier Xzavion West (Sr., Guthrie, Ky., Psychology) was fifth (60-6.5). Additionally, West was ninth in the shot put at 52-6, while Myrhon Addison (Fr., Glennville, Ga., Sports Management) placed 15th in the shot put at 49-2.5.
Youssef Hamed (Jr., Al Wakrah, Qatar, Business Management), another national qualifier, ran the third-fastest 60 in the prelims in 6.78 seconds (did not compete in the finals), while triple jumpers Micah Mills (Jr., Houston, Texas, Psychology) (4th, 47-2.25) and John Webb (Jr., Dothan, Ala., Exercise Science) (7th, 45-10) both ended up in the top 10.
Sean Knockel (Sr., New Sharon, Iowa, Physical Education), in 16th in 49.78 seconds, and Damarius Parker (Fr., Des Moines, Iowa, General Accounting), in 18th at 49.81, were in the top 20 in the 400-meter dash. Gavin Huff (Jr., Mascoutah, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) managed to earn a top-20 finish in the 1,000-meter run (2:33.34) as well.
Andrew Miller (Jr., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science) hit the line in 21st in the one-mile run (4:24.53), and Travaughn Robbins-Hall (So., Lauderhill, Fla., Software Engineering) took 44th in the 60 (7.07) to wrap up the high finishers for WPU.
“We were firing on dang near all cylinders this weekend,” Head Coach Victoria Vinokur said. “We saw some great performances across the board, but KJ, Koby, and Fred hitting standards and breaking school records were the cherries on top. This was a really good meet just a couple weeks out from conference.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Grinnell Friday and Saturday to compete in the Grinnell Darren Young Classic.
