Eagles Qualify Another for Nationals at Grinnell Meet

GRINNELL, Iowa—The day was quite windy in Grinnell on Saturday, April 23, but the temperature was warm, so that helped Eagles track and field participants at the Dick Young Classic.  There was lightning just before the start of the women's shot put and high jump events, so the team waited inside the fieldhouse for 30 minutes at the start of the meet. 

The number one highlight of the day was the 400-meter hurdles event.  Kristin and Sharon Yuan both ran PR's despite a stiff wind in their face coming down the home stretch.  Kristin's time of 1:13 qualified her to compete at the NCCAA National Track Meet in Illinois in May. Sharon's time of 1:16.9 is just a couple of seconds away from meeting the qualification as well.

The team had another moment of jubilation when it thought Joel Neumann had qualified for Nationals in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.14 seconds, only to find out that the meet officials had lined them up on the wrong line and the race was a few meters short, disqualifying the time for Nationals. It was still a great race by all of Faith's 100-meter runners, with Caleb Neumann and David Carroll running the distance in 11.38 and 11.56 seconds respectively. 

Finally, the team had a fun internal competition as Coaches Jake Kirkwood and Tyler Carson competed unattached in three events.  Tyler placed first in the 110-meter hurdles with a new PR of 14.90 seconds, and he also placed second in the triple jump. Jake placed first in the discus throw with a distance of 44.81 meters.  The coaches earned virtual points totaling 28 points for those events, and the team scored 26 points for their various events, so the coaches took home the honors for that competition.

The Eagles are looking forward to their final regular season track meet on Friday at Simpson College in Indianola.