By Jared Fields, Managing Editor
BOSTON – In a championship meet where athletes and coaches hope for the best, the first day of competition at the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships went for more of the worse for the ACU men’s and women’s track teams.
For the women, Shawna Kaye-Thompson, who qualified in three events, strained her left hamstring while warming up for her first event, the 60-meter hurdles.
The men’s team lost two athletes, Johnny Jacob and Marvin Bien-Aime, to hamstring strains in their first preliminary events.
In the only individual final ACU competed in Friday, Angie Aguilar placed second in the women’s pole vault, but was less than enthused with her performance. Aguilar cleared a height of 12-08.75, well short of her personal, and previous NCAA Division II best height of 13-7.00.
Sophomore Katelin Rains of Minnesota State – Mankato set a new Div. II best, clearing a height of 14-feet to win the event.
“I didn’t jump well at all today; I’m pretty disappointed in that,” Aguilar, the defending indoor and outdoor champion, said. “It just wasn’t happening today.”
Freshman Elizabeth Buyse finished eighth, clearing 12-00.75. “I didn’t jump as well as I wanted to,” Buyse said. “I wanted to go 13-[feet], but it’s alright.”
The women’s distance medley relay team finished fifth, one spot behind their ranking going into the meet, with a time of 11:52.35. The men’s DMR team overcame an early deficit to finish fourth with a time of 9:57.06.
Anchor Nicodemus Naimadu, who qualified fourth earlier Friday night in the mile, received the stick in last place, and fought his way up to second place.
However, Naimadu used his energy early and was passed for second with one lap remaining, and lost a battle for third place by just .13 seconds.
“I think I used, at the beginning, much of my energy,” Naimadu said.
The women qualified six athletes for final events Saturday. Ohla Kryv’yak, who anchored the DMR, barely qualified in the mile and will compete in the 5,000 meters also.
“I think there will be [pressure] in the mile and definitely in the 5k,” Kryv’yak said. “Especially in the 5k because it will be the next to last event.”
For finals Saturday, no Wildcat on the women’s team qualified higher than sixth in prelims Friday. The 4×400 relay team is ranked fourth going into Saturday’s finals. After Friday’s events, the women have 13 total points, trailing leader Grand Valley State’s 22.5 points.
The men’s team placed just two athletes in Saturday’s finals after the Friday prelims, Julius Nyango and Naimadu, both in the mile. Nyango qualified with the fourth-best time, finishing at 4:12.35. Naimadu ran a time of 4:13.7, short of his season-best time of 4:07..81, but was visibly preserving himself for later events.
Addressing the team after the conclusion of Friday’s events, head coach Don Hood directed his comments to the men’s team.
“It will take some tremendous performances,” Hood said of his team’s chances to reclaim the indoor title.
“It’s a million-to-one,” Hood repeated to the team. “But I’ve seen stranger things happen.”
Hood has seen stranger things for the best, maybe. After Friday’s events, everyone has seen the strangest things happen for the worse.
