May 14, 2019
Kirkwood wins National Championship in Discus; Team Performs Well at Nationals
ANKENY, Iowa—May 14, 2019—Faith Baptist Bible College senior discus and shot put thrower Jacob Kirkwood participated in the NCCAA Men's Track and Field National Championships May 9-10 in Winona Lake, Indiana, and finished as the national champion in the discus.
Kirkwood holds the school records at Faith for both the shot put and discus and is a 2017 NCCAA All-American. Earlier in the week, Jacob was named the 2019 Wheeler Award winner, which is given annually to one male and one female athlete in NCCAA competition who has performed with excellence in track and field and has exhibited Christian attributes in their lives.
The Faith Eagles sent six others to the NCCAA National Championships who also performed well:
- Chelsea Ratliff, the lone qualifier for the Faith women, finished seventh in the 400m with a time of 1:02.59.
- Evan McKinney ran a season-best 1:02.28 in the 400m hurdles capping off his senior season.
- Josiah Brown topped his personal best in the 3000m steeplechase by over 10 seconds, turning in a new best time of 10:17.97 and finishing 11th.
- Tanner Van Beek threw a season-best in the javelin with a throw of 45.36m, finishing 10th overall.
- In the high jump, freshman Christian Brown, competing in just his third meet, failed to clear opening height, but to do so would've taken his personal best.
- Sam Pedersen finished in the top ten in the high jump, clearing 1.88m and finishing 9th.
- Kirkwood also finished in the top ten in the shot put with a ninth-place performance.
- Overall the men scored 10 total points at the NCCAA National Championship beating out six other schools and finishing 19th in the nation.
