Marian Wins Third-Consecutive Indoor Crossroads League Championship
Crossroads League Championships Central
UPLAND, Ind. - For the third straight season, the Marian men's track and field team has won the Crossroads League Indoor Track and Field Championship, as the Knights dominance over the league continued with their victory Saturday afternoon. Marian scored 179.5 points as a team over the two-day meet, defeating Grace who placed second with 112. On the final day of the championship the Knights had eight all-league performances, taking three championships by Drew Thornton, Manny Manneh, and the 4x400m relay.
On Saturday the Knights opened with a third place finish as the heptathlon came to its conclusion, with Jaden Wills locking in the spot with a score of 4043, the top heptathlon score in the last four seasons. Darius Shelton scored three points for Marian with his sixth place finish in the event, and Evan Haag placed eighth, helping Marian pick up a total of 10 points in the event.
The triple jump was the next completed event, with Chase Maxey leading the Marian jumpers with fifth place finish after leaping 13.30m. Jaidon Barnes just missed a top-eight finish, falling in ninth with a distance of 11.75m, and Myles Sisco finished 12th hitting 11.15m. Marian scored big in the shot put as the next completed event, with each of their three athletes placing in the top eight. Devin Humes led Marian with a second place finish reaching 16.17m on his best throw, earning All-Crossroads League honors. Jacob Netral and Christian Rios combined to score five points for the team, with Netral's 15.11m throw earning a sixth place finish while Rios sat in seventh with a 15.02m mark.
In Marian's first event on the track Joe Barrett finished 11th in the mile, followed by Nick Frank's 13th place effort and Grant Monnier's 17th place finish. Brayden Bender headlined Marian's 10 points scored in the 60m hurdle finals as the freshman finished fourth with an 8.40 second time, while Nicholas Mitchell finished sixth. Crossing the line .01 seconds after Mitchell was Sam Barnett, who took seventh with his 8.74 second time. In the final field event of the weekend, Matthew Jenkins and Zarrien Johnson-Bey both competed in the high jump, scoring eight points combined with their respective fourth and sixth place finishes. Jenkins cleared 1.96m to end his indoor season, while Johnson-Bey placed sixth.
Otto De St Jeor kicked off the final stretch on the track with a third place finish in the 400m, as his 49.51 was good to score six points for the team. Matthew Riehle finished just behind in fifth with a 49.97 time, and adding to the score was Andrew McDade with an eighth place finish. Next in the 60m Marian scored 20 points to the team score, as Manny Manneh won the event with a 6.92 NAIA 'B' standard time. Manneh's PR time was just ahead of Armani Glass who finished third with a 6.96 time, while Matthew Hamer placed fifth with a 6.98 second time.
The 800m was headlined by Drew Thornton's first place finish, winning the race by nearly a full second with his 1:53.96 time. Howard Hendricks placed seventh in the 800m with a 1:57.48 time, and Owen Pittman placed 11th. Kyle Liwanag then finished fourth in the 1000m in the next event to score five team points with his 2:31.22 time. Kenneth Hammell just missed a top-eight mark as his 2:36.18 time was good for ninth, and Mitchell Hayward finished 20th.
Hamer again scored team points for Marian, this time as an all-league performer with his second place finish in the 200m. Hamer's time of 22.21 seconds set a new lifetime best, as he added eight points to the team score. Sisco finished seventh with a 22.72 second time, and just missing a scoring effort was Olivier Lifrange who finished ninth. In the 3000m Blake Hipkiss finished fourth with an 8:29.98 time, while Sam Stage just missed eighth place as his time of 8:42.67 was 0.02 seconds off the mark. Frank would finish 19th in the 3000m with a 9:12 effort.
Concluding the meet was the men's 4x400m relay, as Marian's team ended the night with a first place finish. The Knights sent Lifrange, McDade, De St Jeor, and Riehle out as their lineup, and after a fight through two legs Marian pulled away with the victory. Marian's time was 3:22.82, clocking the tenth best time in program history.
The final event helped give Marian the win, marking the third straight season the Knights have improved their score in the meet. Following the meet, head coach Michael Holman was named the Crossroads League Coach of the Year.
Marian will now begin training for the NAIA National Championships, which begin on March 3 in Brookings, South Dakota, held once again at South Dakota State University.
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