Eagles qualify seven athletes for championships at Oklahoma Baptist

Photo by: Henoc Kivuye

 

The first meet since Oklahoma Christian’s spring break proved to be no trouble for the Eagles’ men and women’s track and field teams, as multiple athletes qualified for the NCCAA Outdoor Championships at the Oklahoma Baptist Open in Shawnee, Okla. last Saturday.

“They performed very well the first meet back [from] spring break,” Heath said. “We competed in many different events. … We had four events that qualified for the national meet, and we had six because all three girls in the javelin qualified. We got qualifiers for the national meet in the women’s javelin, one in the discus, one in the shot put and one in the 400 [meter] hurdles.”

In the javelin, junior Katie Ostlund came in first place out of 21 competitors with a final distance of 40.5 meters. Freshman Miranda Ostlund took second place with a final distance of 37.65 meters. Senior Roxann Gonzalez finished in eighth place with a final distance of 30.46 meters.

In the shot put, senior Roz Hamilton and Miranda Ostlund came in fourth and 11th place out of 12 competitors with final distances of 12.17 meters and 9.46 meters, respectively. In the discus throw, junior Makenzie Brown took sixth place with a final distance of 35.95 meters.

Hamilton and Brown’s individual throws both qualified them for the NCCAA championship meet to be held in Rome, Ga., in May.

In the Lady Eagles’ sprinting events, senior Jerisha Fields finished the 200-meter dash with a final time of 28.92.

“I thought that I did not do well, but I ran my fastest time of the season, so that was really good,” Fields said. “However, I was not satisfied with my performance because now looking at the time, I could have done better. I will work on that next time. I guess [I should] finish harder and work on my starts.”

Senior Wilmina Gley finished in 20th place out of 36 competitors in the 200-meter with a final time of 27.25.

“My performance I would say overall was good; I could have improved most of my times, but overall I would say it was good coming in from spring break,” Gley said. “For the 200-meter, it was close to qualifying. I was somewhat satisfied with my 200, but for the relay, I was not really satisfied with my performances. I could have done better.”

According to Fields, timing is a major factor in relay events, specifically during baton exchanges and handoffs.

“Working on our handoffs with the baton exchange is hard for us,” Fields said. “In the 4×100 relay, it’s all the exchanges. If you exchange that, you get a baton to the person, then everything else can go well. [We need to] communicate better with our exchanges with the baton because everything else is there, we just need to get better handoffs.”

The Lady Eagles claimed fourth place with a final time of 50.81 in the 4×100 relay.

“From this meet, I have learned we need to enforce our teamwork, and we also need to motivate each other on the relay team and offer support,” Gley said.

On the men’s side, four individual competitors along with the 4×100 meter relay joined the 4×800 meter relay team as national qualifiers at OBU last weekend.

“For the men’s team, they did a very good job,” Heath said. “Senior Larry Brown was second in the hammer throw, [and] he qualified again on the national team. Also, senior Winston Ogletree qualified again in the 400 hurdles in sixth, and then we got a new qualifier: Bryant Keirns in the steeplechase with 9:39.82.”

While Brown did not throw a personal best, only one other competitor, an NCAA Division I athlete, outthrew him.

In the 100-meter dash, junior Jamal George earned ninth place with a final time of 11.31. In the 200-meter dash, freshman Austin Kruzich took 12th place out of 22 competitors with a final time of 22.89.

Freshmen Evan Durrill and Blake Thompson competed in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter run, taking 18th and 24th place out of 28 competitors with final times of 2:07.74 and 2:17.11 in the 800-meter, respectively. The pair also took 13th and 23rd place with final times of 4:13.58 and 4:26.77 in the 1,500-meter.

Oklahoma Christian’s 4×800-meter relay team posted a final time of 8:02.93 at OBU, beating the second-place team from St. Gregory University by 1.34 seconds. The Eagles’ final time was the third-fastest time in the NCCAA so far this spring.

“The athletes are still getting better, and they are still working hard,” Heath said. “If they will just be more patient in the next two or three more weeks, we will see more qualifiers for the national meet.”

Oklahoma Christian will compete in the Emporia State Relays in Emporia, Kans. on April 5. According to Fields, the athletes have their goals set for the next meet.

“[My goal is] to run faster, all-out, because I tend to kind of not try as hard when I get to the end, so definitely [I want] to finish hard and work on my form,” Fields said. “I will go through practice for this week and do handoffs for the relays and work on our starts.”