TOPEKA, Kan. – The Oklahoma Baptist men's and women's track and field teams closed out their weekend of action at the Washburn Invitational Saturday. OBU returns home having received two separate NCAA provisional qualifying marks.
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Mahcoe Smith brought home the first qualifying mark of the afternoon, running the 60 meter hurdles in 6.84 seconds. He needed a time of 6.86 to qualify.
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The second qualifying mark was earned by the men's 4x400 relay team.
Shirvante Knauls,
Marcus Petersen,
Jax Holland, and
Tarees Rhoden posted a time of 3:13.39, to beat the qualifying time by 2.88 seconds.
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Another top performance on the men's team came from Holland in the long jump. He placed third with a jump of 7.05 meters, outperforming Concordia-St. Paul's Andrew Johnson by 0.14 meters to claim a top-three finish.
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On the women's side, the Bison were able to finish the meet with four top-three finishes.
Allison Derry,
Mary McKey,
Kayla McGruder, and
Emma Downing combined their efforts to take second in the distance medley relay. They finished the relay with a time of 12:08.36, only 2.43 seconds shy of the NCAA provisional cut.
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McKey finished second in the 400 meter dash and Downing placed third in the 3,000 meter.
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Sherine Van Der Westhuizen,
Taylor James,
Tahlor Brown, and McKey rounded out the top performances for the women's team. They placed third in the 4x400 relay, with a time of 3:59.68.
"Washburn hosted a wonderful track meet at their new Indoor Facility," said Head Coach
Ford Mastin. "NCAA Division II was well represented with many of the top rated track programs. We represented ourselves well, there were several personal bests recorded and several athletes and relay teams worked their way on to a better place on the national performance list. Several key athletes were unable to compete, but we hope to have those athletes back soon and continue to pursue National prominence," said Mastin.
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The Bison will return to action next Friday, Feb. 5, to participate in the Herm Wilson Invitational in Wichita, Kansas.
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