PITTSBURG, Kan.–– The Oklahoma Baptist track team opened eyes and raised eyebrows across the NCAA Division II landscape winning nine events on their way to team titles the men and women at the Rumble in the Jungle Meet at Pittsburg, Kan.
A total of seven different schools sent teams to the meet hosted by Pitt State, the defending NCAA Division II men's champion. Also competing were nationally-ranked Lincoln University (MO) and instate rivals Oklahoma Christian, Southern Nazarene and Central Oklahoma.
Veteran OBU Coach
Ford Mastin praised his team which was running for the first time in since early December.
"Today was a big encouragement for our track program," Mastin said. "Both the men's and women's teams were committed to making a statement that we are a competitive NCAA Division II program. Mission accomplished."
"This was a challenging meet with several good teams," Mastin said. "We certainly made a good memory today. Proud of both teams."
On the women's side, OBU had five first-place finishes with two provisional qualifiers in Lea Molter and McKae Mitchel. Molter won the 60 meters with a time of 8.69 seconds while Mitchell took first in the 400 meters with a time of 56.11 seconds.
Other first-place finishers for the women were
Cameka Witter with a 1:21.72 in the 600-yard dash;
Tesa Potter in the 800 meters with a time of 2:19.83 and Kaylee Crowson in the mile with a time of 5:14.02.
On the men's side,
Logan Huslig won the 800 meters with a time of 1:59.66 and Sayvon Hilton won the 600-yard dash in 1:12.84. Other winners for OBU were
Nathan Crowson in the mile with a time of 4:20.4. and
Shirvante Knauls in the 400 meters at 49.01.
OBU's next meet will be Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Deloss Dodds Invitational at Kansas State.
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