By Jared Fields, Managing Editor
“It didn’t start off with a bang but it sure ended with one,” Hood said. “I think everyone came back and realized we’re going to be really good.”
The Wildcats automatically qualified for two events at the national meet at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. last weekend.
The women’s distance medley relay team finished behind Washington State by less than half a second to take second with a time of 11:49.14, a time Hood said was the best in Div. II.
The men’s distance medley won with a provisional qualifying time of 9:57.38. Hood said a bad handoff between Matt Pugh and Julius Nyango set the team back, but Nyango closed the gap and kept the team in second going into the final handoff to Nicodemus Naimadu.
“Nicodemus had a whole mile to make up 10 yards. He ended up running a 4:06 mile to catch [Washington State],” Hood said.
Naimadu won the relay by 20 yards.
“To make up that much time and beat the guy by that much. It was just really neat to see him do that.” he said.
Naimadu won the mile and provisionally qualified with a 4:07.81. Nyango also provisionally qualified in the mile, finishing sixth, with a time of 4:10.88.
Johnny Jacob also automatically qualified in the 400-meters with a time of 47.57 in the finals to finish third.
Jacob also anchored the men’s 4×400 relay team, with Hood clocking his split at 46.7.
“He has a lot of character. He ran three 400s in a row and came out [Monday] and had a great practice,” he said.
Completing the men’s 4×400 relay were Marvin Bien-Aime, Andrew McDowell and Mark Paige. The relay finished seventh but provisionally qualified with a time of 3:16.86.
The women’s 4×400 also posted a provisional mark with a time of 3:45.95 and a fourth place finish. Hood said their time puts them third in Div. II.
Wilkins, the starter in the 4×400 relay, provisionally qualified in the 400-meters with a time of 55.63. Wilkins’ time was good for fourth at the meet.
Two other women provisionally qualified in the 400-meters: Azraa Rounds (56.53) and Venessa Whittle (56.80).
Kim Prather and Shawna-Kaye Thompson, both members of the 4×400 relay, provisionally qualified in two other events. Prather provisionally qualified in the 60-meter sprint at 7.7 seconds and in the 200-meters with a time of 24.67 in the preliminaries.
Thompson provisionally qualified in the 200-meters and the 60-meter hurdles. Thompson posted a 25.00 time in the 200 and a personal best time of 8.66 seconds in the hurdles. She missed the automatic qualifying time by one-hundredth of a second.
“I ran my best, but I think I can do better,” Thompson said.
Rounding out the qualifiers from this weekend’s meet were triple jumpers Vladyslav Gorbenko and Davy Manga. Gorbenko won the triple jump with a distance of 51-04.25, good for the second-best distance in Div. II. Manga is behind Gorbenko at third in the nation after placing fourth with a jump of 50-06.25.
The Wildcats will split its teams into three groups this weekend when they travel to Arkansas, Iowa State or Texas Tech.
