Statesmen Qualifiers Just Miss Stand at Nationals
Yankton, S.D.–For the first time in several campaigns, the William Penn track and field teams were not able to bring home any hardware as they competed at the NAIA Indoor National Championship Wednesday through Saturday.
Men’s high jumper Mofiyinfoluwa Alade (Sr., Hoffman Estates, Ill., Exercise Science) was in action, as was the women’s 4×400-meter relay team composed of Michaela Kmiec (So., Centerville, Texas, Exercise Science), Shaniah Newby (So., Twentynine Palms, Calif., Nursing), Ashley Omoregie (Jr., Old Bridge, N.J., Biology), and Raven Williams (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.).
On Wednesday, the ladies hit the track for the preliminaries. The team, unfortunately, did not qualify for the finals, posting a time of 4:04.75, which placed William Penn 14th out of the 16 squads in the field.
In a thrilling team battle, Indiana Tech regained the men’s crown at the
2021 NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships that concluded Saturday at the Ruth Donohue First Dakota Fieldhouse in Yankton, South Dakota.
The team race was amazingly close as the meet wound to its conclusion. The final session had six events and the team lead changed after all six – with four different programs continually swapping the lead.
In the end, it was top-ranked Indiana Tech on top with 51.5 points, just ahead of second-ranked Dordt (Iowa) with 47. The winning margin of 4.5 points was the meet’s closest since 2011, when 3 points separated the top two.