Warriors Finish Out the Season with Another National Qualifier

By: Cassidy Warson

In Brookings, South Dakota, Waldorf’s men and women’s track and field teams take second and fourth place at the North Star Athletic Association Indoor Championships on Saturday.

“I’m really proud of how we competed across the board,” Warriors head coach Nathan Christianson said, “I don’t think there was not one person that didn’t give 110%.”

On Monday, February 13, 2017, Justin Jacobi finished his weekend bringing a score of ten points in the NSAA Indoor Multi Championship to the North Star Championship meet. In the heptathlon, the sophomore took first getting an award of all-conference honors. Jacobi finished first in the 60-meter-hurdles, high-jump and long-jump parts in the heptathlon. In running events, Jacobi improved his indoor school record in the 60-meter hurdles sprinting to a time of 8.77 seconds, giving eight points to the team standings.

In field events, Demetrius Baker contributed a second place finish in the weight throw with a toss of 14.12-meters. Baker broke his previous indoor school record by .66 meters.

Cameron Newsome cleared a height of 1.91 meters in the high jump, finishing second scoring eight points for the Warriors and earning all-conference honors. Isaiah Craig followed behind by scoring six points in the high jump taking third place for all-conference honors and four points in the triple jump for a fourth place finish. Craig jumped to a height of 1.86 meters in the high jump and 13.20 meters in the triple jump.

In the long jump and triple jump, Dubem Awuzie finished third in both events giving twelve total points overall to the team and getting all-conference recognition in both events. In the triple jump, Awuzie broke the indoor school record by .34 meters jumping a total distance of 13.74 meters. Awuzie recorded a distance of 6.61 meters in the long jump. Lastly for Awuzie, one point was scored after a sixth place finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.22 seconds in the prelims and 7.23 seconds in the finals.

Starting the day off for the guy’s team in running events, with senior Nathan Meiners, snatched first place in the 5,000-meter run. Meiners breaks his indoor school record by 9.13 seconds with an indoor school record time of 16 minutes, 6 seconds. Scoring ten points in this event, Meiners also received all-conference honors.

Freshman Andrew Murley set a personal record in the 5,000-meter breaking his time by 18.9 seconds with a third place finish and a total time of 16 minutes, 17 seconds recording six points and all-conference honors.

Senior Aaron Ward finished the 5,000 coming in sixth and scoring a point with a time of 16 minutes, 30 seconds, breaking his personal record by 29.93 seconds.

Also in the 5,000, Jesse Vega came in finishing with a personal best time of 17 minutes, 13 seconds smashing his previous time by 1 minute, 10 seconds.

Bryce Elm also earned all-conference recognition scoring six points, taking third in the 3,000- meter run breaking his previous indoor school record with a time of 9 minutes, 15 seconds.

On the day, Nic Ganzeveld scored eight points each, taking second place in two events running the mile and the 3,000-meter run. Ganzeveld broke his indoor personal record in the mile run by 3.6 seconds with a time of 4 minutes, 28 seconds and crushed the indoor school record by 11.34 seconds with a time of 9 minutes, 12 seconds in the 3,000. Along with these achievements, Ganzeveld earned all-conference recognition.

To finish up the 3,000-meter run, Warriors freshman Andrew Murley took fifth with a time of 9 minutes, 28 seconds for two points and Meiners finished right behind in sixth for one point and a time of 9 minutes, 33 seconds.

Mark Ahlers finished first in the 600-meter run, giving the Warriors ten points with a time of 22.35 seconds coming up just short of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national-qualifying B standard by .3 seconds. He defined the term, snatched, exactly in this race by out-kicking his competitors and beating them on the lean.

With senior Chasen Selsor, senior Cassidy Warson, Jacobi and Elm, the Warrior’s 4×800 relay team scored six points with a third place finish with a time of 8 minutes, 40 seconds.

In the mile, Warrior runners Adam Brinkman put up a time of 5 minutes, 17 seconds and Alden Zeller broke his personal record time by 3.81 seconds posting a time of 5 minutes, 52 seconds.

In the last race of the day for the men, Warrior runner’s sophomore Jonah Remker, senior Austin Anderson, Ahlers and Craig finished second in the 4×400 meter relay coming up with eight points and receiving all-conference recognition.

“My goal was just to go out and compete hard and I think we really took that to heart,” Christianson said.

By the end of the day, Dickinson State University came up with 193 points to take home the NSAA title. Waldorf takes second by a large margin with (128) points ahead of Dakota State University who scored (87) points in third. The University of Jamestown scored (58) in fourth place, Valley City (46) and Viterbo University coming in last with (45).

On the women’s side, Markai Wotoe competed in her first meet of the season and made the mark she needed to make it to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Indoor National Championships. Wotoe jumped a distance of 5.40 meters and taking first place in the long jump and broke the previous indoor school record by .12 meters and gave ten points to the girl’s point total.

“First meet in probably over a year to get a national mark’s pretty impressive,” said Christianson.

Another event that Wotoe competed in alongside with freshmen Taylor Navratil and Kaila Jackson was the 60-meter dash. All three girls battled very closely with Wotoe securing third with a time of 8.16 seconds to earn all-conference honors and six points. Navratil came in fourth with a time of 8.20 seconds and Jackson close behind in fifth at 8.21 seconds.

Waldorf senior Danielle Holt came in fifth with a time of 10.11 seconds in the 60 high hurdles. She also broke her previous indoor school-record time of 10.25 seconds.

Women Warriors 4×800 relay team of Patricia Molina, Katelynn Ramirez, Bailey Matthaidess and Marissa Kuik placed fourth with a time of 12 minutes, 47 seconds and broke the previous indoor school record by 20.68 seconds.

Then in the 4×400 relay, Kuik, Navratil, Wotoe and Jackson raced for a fifth place finish with a time of 4 minutes, 30 seconds to score two points and broke the previous indoor school by 7.18 seconds.

Molina placed fourth overall in the pentathlon. She raced to a fifth place finish in the 60 high hurdles, jumped up to third in the high jump, placed fourth in the long jump and competed hard for a third place finish in the 800 meter run giving her an ending total of 2,161 point.

In field events, freshman thrower, MacKinze Thill-Urbanek, improved her indoor school record by .38 throwing 11.19 meters.

Freshman Jennifer Plancarte hit her personal records in the shot put and weight throw. Plancarte threw the shot 8.94 meters, which was further than her previous distance by .08 meters. She also improved her throwing distance by .04 meters in the weight throw with a distance of 10.46 meters.

Lastly, sophomore Kelli Wallace threw a personal-record in the weight throw and hitting a distance of 10.85 meters improving her record by .36 meters.

The girls end the meet with a fourth place finish with a point total of 40 points with the University of Jamestown winning the meet with 203 points. Dickinson State University takes second with 154 points, Viterbo University with 102, Valley City State University with fifth place at 39 points and coming in last is Dakota State University with 15 points.

Representing the Warriors, Ganzeveld and Wotoe will be at the NAIA Indoor National Championships at Johnson City, Tennessee in the 1,000 meter run and the long jump. The semifinal round of the 1,000 is set to start at 4:30 p.m. (ET) and the long jump will compete at 1 p.m. on March 3.