Saturday, May 28

Abilene, Texas - The Abilene Christian University men's track and field team did not serve as much of a gracious host, if one were judging by the Wildcats' treatment of their competition.

ACU absolutely put the hammer down on its nearest competitors late Saturday, overcoming on-and-off rain to score 109 team points, well ahead of Adams State's 84. St. Augustine's placed third with 70 points, and Lincoln and Albany State rounded out the top five with 41 ½ and 40 points, respectively.

Lincoln University repeated as the women's national champion (108), followed by Cal-State Bakersfield (53) and Abilene Christian (45.5). St. Augustine's and Adams State finished fourth and fifth in the women's team race, respectively, with 42 and 39 points.

The Adams State men had a small lead on the Wildcats through the running of the 110-meter hurdles, but that was before ACU athletes won four of the final seven events. A brief rain delay seemed to charge the men's team, as Wildcat senior Marvin Essor returned from the break to win the national title in the 400-meter dash. Essor, who won the indoor title in the event in March, beat out Northwest Missouri State's E.J. Falkner to post the top time in Division II this year, 45.49. Essor would play a crucial role in the men's 4x400-meter relay later in the evening, but first several other Wildcats would get in on the winning.

Sophomore Marvin Bien-Aime shook off a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash (10.63) to win the 200-meter dash a few events later. A surge at the line gave Bien-Aime the win over defending indoor champion Michael Lawrence of Minnesota State-Mankato with a time of 20.98.

After the 200-meter dash, ACU led Adams State by 13 points, with the Grizzly-full 5,000-meter run soon to come. But the Grizzly distance runners would have to get past ACU sophomore Nicodemus Naimadu, who earlier had dominated the 3,000-meter steeplechase (8:46.71) and brought in the best 5,000-meter time by five seconds. Naimadu and 10,000-meter champ Celedonio Rodriguez of Adams State would start the race at break-neck speed, switching the lead several times throughout the race. Midway through the 12 ½-lap race, however, Naimadu surged ahead of the Grizzly senior and never relented his lead. Naimadu finished in 13:59.67, while teammate Laurant Ngirakamaro (third, 14:19.99) completed his assignment of defeating ASC's Matt Lavassiur to ensure six more team points.

Going into the 4x400-meter relay, the men's team race was all but sealed, but ACU would have another surprise up its sleeve. The final event of the evening featured defending 4x400-meter relay champion St. Augustine's, who had won the last five titles in the event as well as 13 of the last 15. Ricardo Johnson led off the relay for the Wildcats, who were in fourth place after the senior's leg. Essor, however, took the baton with unmatched resolve and put the ACU in first place with a blistering 44.9-second leg going into the third runner. Junior Elton Garus-Oab kept ACU within reaching distance with his leg, but it was junior Delt Cockrell who brought it home for the Wildcats. Cockrell successfully passed St. Augustine's quarter-mile superstar Jamaal Torrence on the backstretch, relented the lead on the homestretch, then edged the Falcon junior at the line to bring home ACU 's first 4x400-meter relay title since 1997.

The top individual scorer for the women was Lynnsey Dailey of Fort Valley State, who won the 100-meter hurdles, the 400-meter hurdles, and the triple jump, and placed sixth in the 100-meter dash.

Lincoln's Shandria Brown finished her career by winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes for the third straight championship, with times of 11.59 and 23.60, respectively.

The 2006 NCAA Division II National Championships will take place in Emporia, Kansas.

Friday, May 27

Abilene, Texas — A handful of large men put on a monster show Friday on the second day of the NCAA Division II Track and Field National Championships in Abilene, Texas. The men's shot put final featured three athletes who had thrown at least 62 feet, and all three would exceed their season best marks on Friday – plus some.

Van Mounts, a senior at Cal-State Bakersfield, broke the meet record on his first throw with a mammoth heave of 63-10 ½. Northwest Missouri State's Clint Prange took the lead and the meet record on his third throw, however, establishing a new Division II record in the process. Cal-State senior Chris Figures, however, more than made up for three straight fouls with another lead-changing and record-breaking throw of 65-11.

But Prange wouldn't have it.

On the last throw of the meet, Prange reared back and throw the shot a mind-boggling 66 feet, 1 inch, establishing a meet and Division II record for the third time in a few hours. The national shot put title was the first for Prange, who earned a title in the discus Thursday evening.

“I can't even begin to fathom this,” he said. “I have always been good at the discus. I want to thank God for the ability He has given me.  People always dream of hitting the last shot or making the last goal, well this was my time to step up and make the last throw.  If you'd have told me I'd throw that far earlier in the year, I would have laughed at you.”

Earlier Friday, however, a handful of athletes competed in the final events of the decathlon and heptathlon to determine winners for the men and women. Seattle Pacific's Chris Randolph edged out Lincoln's Decosma Wright, who was leading after Thursday's events, with a second-place finish in the 1,500-meter run, the last event of the competition.

“Talking to my coach going into the 1,500 I knew I had to beat [Wright] by about a minute,” Thompson said. “I just had to go out and do it. It was a great bunch of guys to compete with and encourage each other throughout the two days.”

A stadium points record fell in the heptathlon, as Nebraska-Omaha's Anastassia Kyvelido won the five-event competition with 5,780 points. Kyvelido used big points in the long jump (871), the javelin (774) and the 800-meter run (805) on the final day to win by a sizeable margin over second-place finisher Danielle Ayers-Stamper of Seattle Pacific (5,606).

Friday also featured the final of the women's shot put, which saw April Burton of Cal-State Bakersfield take the title with a throw of 50-5 ¼. In the women's high jump final, Albany State freshman Lavern Spencer cleared 6-1 1/4, defeating defending champion Nicki Hill of Clark Atlanta for the national title.

Only eight of the 16 competitors in the men's pole vault competition cleared the opening height, leading to what would be a quick outcome in the final. A trio of Missouri Southern vaulters dominated the competition Friday, with junior Matt Campbell coming out on top with a winning vault of 17-2 ¾. Teammates Chris Turner and Kyle Rutledge placed second and third, respectively, while Abilene Christian University's Cory Aguilar placed fourth overall. Indoor national champion Mark Zilch of Lewis placed a disappointing fifth after failing to clear 16-6 ¾.

The men's triple jump final turned out four 50-foot jumps, but Albany State's Brandon Roulhac would have the last laugh. Roulhac's third jump of 52-1 ¾ would stay at the top throughout the competition, but not before ACU teammates Yevgen Pashchenko and Ben Washington would put on some pressure. Pashchenko, the indoor national champion, moved into second place on his third jump of 51-3 and later improved his mark to 51-7, but the effort would only be good enough for second place in the competition. Washington, a national champion in the event in 2003, led the competition early with a 51-0 ¾ jump, but the Wildcat senior wouldn't improve on that mark, finishing third. South Dakota sophomore Derek Gearman rounded out the top-four with a 50-2 ½ performance.

The only final on the track on Friday was the women's 3,000-meter run, which saw an familiar face take away the first-place medal. Western State senior Alisha Williams, who was a 2004 champion in the indoor mile and outdoor 1,500-meter run, broke away from a pack of runners with just under a lap to go to win the 3,000-meter run title. ACU's Olha Kryv'yak placed second in the race with a time of 9:32.83, followed by Southern Indiana junior Heather Cooksey in third (9:36.87).

Ten preliminary races were run Friday on the track, their finals to be contested on an action-packed Saturday evening. The men's team leader after six scored events is Adams State with 28 points, followed by Missouri Southern (27) and Cal-State Bakersfield (22). On the women's side, Cal-State Bakersfield has the lead with 29 points, followed by Nebraska-Omaha (22) and Adams State (20). Saturday's running finals will determine the meet winners, however, as St. Augustine's, Abilene Christian, and Lincoln University all will be well represented on the track.

The finals of the remaining field events will kick off Saturday's schedule, and the running finals will begin at 6 p.m. with the men's and women's steeplechase.

Thursday, May 26

Abilene, Texas — Big crowds, Texas friendliness, and unusually cool weather marked the first day of action at the NCAA Division II Track and Field National Championships in Abilene, Texas, on Thursday. The crowds at Elmer Gray Stadium and Texas welcome were expected, but the unexpected guest in typically scorching West Texas was a temperature in the upper 60s and low 70s.

The cool weather served as a help to most of the athletes competing in qualifying events and the few finals that were held Thursday. The national meet kicked off Thursday morning with the first half of the multi-event competition.

After just six completed events, Adams State is in first place for both the men and women. But as expected, the men's qualifiers from top contenders Abilene Christian University and St. Augustine's looked strong in Thursday's semifinal events, setting the table for a tight team race over the next two days.

Thursday featured six final events, including the men's and women's discus, the men's and women's long jump, and the men's and women's 10,000-meter run.

In perhaps the most exciting final of Thursday's action, Fabian Hutchinson of St. Augustine's jumped 25-2 ¾ on his final jump to earn 10 important team points. Hutchinson matched the jump of defending champion James Walton of Truman State on his last jump, forcing the judges to consult the athletes' second-best jumps to determine the winner of the event. Hutchinson's second jump was .17 centimeters longer than Walton's, giving the Falcon the win and ten team points. Morehouse's Cameron Dayne put up a fight late in the final flight to finish third, making the most of his fourth jump with a 24-11 ¾ effort. Abilene Christian University's Yevgen Pashchenko, who led the event for much of the evening, finished fourth overall with a 24-11 jump for five Wildcat team points.

Cal-State Bakersfield's Cecilia Barnes, who was named Division II Athlete of the Year at Wednesday night's banquet, lived up to the recognition Thursday, dominating the discus competition to win her second straight title in the event. Barnes' winning throw of 189-6 was a meet and stadium record, and over a foot beyond second-place finisher and teammate April Burton (178-8).

In the men's discus throw, Clint Prange of Northwest Missouri State threw the disc 191 feet, 11 inches to win his first national title. The men's Division II athlete of the year, Christ Figures of Cal-State Bakersfield, was second with a throw of 178-10.

Southern Indiana's Candace Perry claimed her first outdoor title in the long jump after finishing second in 2004. Perry's distance of 20-3 3/5 on her third jump was good enough to hold off second place finisher Foluso Makinde of Nebraska-Omaha, who jumped 19-9 ¾. Perry said her win was a long time coming.

“It feels really great to win the national championship,” said the Southern Indiana sophomore. “Last year, I got second at outdoors as a freshman and I finished third indoors this year. I worked hard and came into the meet knowing I worked hard enough to win.” 

Closing out the first day's events, Celedonio Rodriguez of Adams State and Harding University 's Janet Kogo claimed men's and women's 10,000-meter run titles, respectively. Rodriguez, a Grizzly senior, improved on his second-place finish a year ago, cruising to a 29:32.48 victory and lapping the rest of the field in the process. Rodriguez's teammate, Matt Levassiur, was second in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 30:06.62, followed by ACU sophomore Laurant Ngirakamaro (30:30.51).

Kogo closed out her collegiate career with a title in the 10,000-meter run, running by herself for a good part of the race's second half. Her time of 34:50.18 was an Elmer Gray Stadium record. Stephanie Bylander of Adams State was second in the final event of the day with a time of 35:27.60. Kogo will look to pick up a second national title in the 5,000-meter run Saturday.

Seattle Pacific's Danielle Ayers-Stam is the leader in the heptathlon after four events with 3,402 points, followed by Anastassia Kyvelido of Nebraska-Omaha (3,333) and Alissa Miller of Angelo State (3,236). Ayers-Stamper won the 100-meter hurdles and high jump, and finished fourth in the shot put and seventh in the 200-meter dash.

Lincoln University's Decosma Wright is the current leader in the decathlon with 4,072 points. Wright won three of the first five events, including the 100-meter dash, the shot put, and the 400-meter dash.

Friday's track and field action will begin at 10 a.m. with the completion of the decathlon and heptathlon, followed by quarterfinal running and field events beginning at 4 p.m. In addition to the conclusion of the multi-events, Friday will feature the finals of the men's and women's shot put, pole vault, high jump, triple jump, and women's 3,000-meter run.