March 7, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (live stats) - Azusa Pacific University (Calif.) has won more NAIA track & field championships than any other school in history, and the Cougars are primed for two more crowns following second-day competition at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships in the Minidome on the campus of East Tennessee State University.

No one is conceding a crown just yet.  In fact, Saturday's final day of competition could develop into one of the most exciting team finishes in the NAIA's 43-year history of indoor track & field championships. 

In the men's team race, Azusa Pacific leads with 19.75 points with Siena Heights University (Mich.) a close second with 17.75.  Langston University (Okla.) is third with 16 points, and Oklahoma Baptist University is fourth with 14. 

Siena Heights moved into title contention with a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the finals of the 4x800-meter relay, clocking a 7:41.09.  Junior Luke Pawlaczyk held off a furious challenge over the final 120 meters to give the Saints their first-ever NAIA 4x800  title after numerous narrow misses the past five years. 

In only his second heptathlon ever, Oklahoma Baptist's Jonathan Hilton won the NAIA title with a meet-record 5,454 points, beating Azusa Pacific's David Pichler, who was second with 5,228.  Hilton won 3 of the 7 events which included a one-foot personal-best in the pole vault (15' 3"), capping an intense two-day competition in which the top four finishers all surpassed the former NAIA record of 4,921.

"When Jonathan finished second in the decathlon at outdoors last year we tried to get him to dream big about the Olympic trials in the decathlon," said Oklahoma Baptist coach Ford Masten.  "This is a step toward that, and he came through against good competition and under pressure."

In the high jump, freshman Montagious Brown collected the first-ever NAIA indoor championship for Shorter College (Ga.), winning the title with a leap of 6' 10¾" to beat William Moses on Langston on fewer misses.

Sophomore Dominic Goodman of Dickinson State erased the frustration of a sub-par indoor season by rallying on his fifth attempt to win the long jump with a mark of 23' 11¾," coming all the way back from fifth place entering the finals to give the Blue Hawks bonus points.  Coupled with some surprising advancements in preliminary events staged Friday, Dickinson State vaulted into title contention, much like it did during the second day of competition on their way to the 2006 NAIA outdoor championship.

"There are some similarities to 2006," said Blue Hawk head coach Pete Stanton.  "Overall, today was an outstanding day for us.  You can't really call Dominic's jump a surprise because last year he was the national runner-up at outdoors, but he hadn't jumped that far this season.

"There are three very good teams out there in Azusa Pacific, Oklahoma Baptist and Doane," Stanton went on to say, "and my concern for us is that we're not as diverse as some of those other teams. It'll all come down to who performs the most consistent tomorrow."

Through six events, the Azusa Pacific also sits atop the women's leader board with 21 points.  Wayland Baptist University (Texas) is second with 18, and Concordia University (Neb.) is third with 15.  Off in the distance is Simon Fraser University (B.C.) which is currently sixth with ten points but is poised to score many points during Saturday's finals.

"We had a pretty good day," said Mike Barnett, the head coach of the Azusa Pacific women's team, "but this is anybody's championship to win.  Simon Fraser has a lot points sitting out there Saturday and so too does Wayland Baptist.  It'll come down to whoever makes the fewest mistakes and performs to the best of their abilities."

Wayland Baptist put itself in a striking position with an impressive victory in the closing event of the day -- the women's 4x800-meter relay.  Erin Britton's second-leg effort gave the Flying Queens the lead for good and anchor Purity Biwott broke away from the field to register WBU's winning time of 9:15.53 and beat Azusa Pacific, which was second with a 9:18.79, for what could prove to be an important four-point swing in team title race.

"We had a roller-coaster day for us", said Wayland Baptist head coach Brian Whitlock, "but that was a great finish today that will hopefully excite our girls.  We have a good opportunity (to win) tomorrow."

Adding to Wayland Baptist's Saturday fire is freshman Kimberly Smith who today set the NAIA record in the 60-meter semifinals.  Smith blazed a 7.32 to break the former meet record of 7.41 and set up what should be a key head-to-head battle with Simon Fraser's Ruky Abduali (7.42) in the finals.

Abduali accounted for all of Simon Fraser's points thus far by winning her second consecutive long jump title with a leap of 21' 1¼", the second best jump in the NAIA championship history.

"I'm really excited about my jump and in another way I'm upset because I wanted to go for the (Canadian) record and it didn't happen," said Abduali.  "I'm a little bit relieved after the long jump, but I have to think about my next event, and I'm really excited about the 60 tomorrow.  It's a little bit of challenge, but I always like competing with someone."

In the women's 20-pound weight throw, junior Aubrey Baxter of Black Hills State University (S.D.) became only the second person in NAIA history to clear 60-feet with a winning toss of 60' 3¼."

Sophomore Kelsy Aide of Dickinson State University (S.D.) won the women's pole vault with a leap of 11' 11 ¾" to best Caitlyn Gager of Bethel College (Ind.), who cleared the same height but had an additional miss with the bar at 3.65 meters.

Friday's competition opened with Tina Peters (15:22.43) of Goshen University (Ind.) and Chris Tegtmeier (12:41.19) of Concordia University (Neb.) winning the women's and men's 3,000-meter race walk, respectively.