February 19, 2023

MARIAN WINS FOURTH CONSECUTIVE INDOOR CROSSROADS TITLE

Marion, Ind. – For the fourth consecutive season, the Marian men's track and field team dominated in the Crossroads League, winning the CL Indoor Track and Field Championship. The Knights scored 216 as a team, blowig out the field by 86 points as Indiana Wesleyan took second, followed by Mount Vernon Nazarene in third. Marian had 11 All-Crossroads League performances on Saturday, taking four championships by Jacob Netral, Eli Felton, and Tyler Thomas.

Wrapping up Friday's events were AJ Wrenn and Peyton Doty finished the remaining three events of the heptathlon, adding to Marian's total points with a fourth and sixth place finish. Wrenn had a total of 3687 points and Doty finished with 2910.

On Saturday, the Knights had four runners place in the 60m dash. Tyler Thomas and Manny Manneh took the top two places, finishing within 0.1 seconds of each other. Both reached an NAIA B Standard, with Thomas finishing in 6.85 and Manneh at 6.86. Armani Glass finished fourth and Will Osafo in seventh. The four scored a total of 25 points for the team. Freshman Gus Martinez, added to the team total with fifth place finish in the 60m hurdles.

The 200m dash saw three back-to-back finishes by the Knights, with Otto De St Jeor finshing in second, Olivier Lifrange in third, and Connor Maple in fourth. Lifrange also received a top there finish in the 400m, placing second with a time of 49.45. Matthew Riehle and Eli Givens each scored points for the team as well, coming in fifth and seventh. Two Knights, Drew Thornton and Maksims Sincukovs, were able to reach the NAIA B standard in the 800m, placing fourth and fifth respectively. Owen Pittman also completed the 800m, finishing eighth. The three runners combined for a total of 10 points.

Robin Aguilar-Gonzalez received a third-place finish in the 1000m, followed by Howard Hendricks in fifth, and Kenneth Hammell in seventeenth. Blake Hipkiss scored a point for the Knights, placing eighth in the one mile with a time of 4:26.55. Nick Frank finished thirteenth. The 3000m saw three Knights compete, with Joe Barrett finishing eighth, Clark Chustz in eleventh, and Grant Monnier in eighteenth.

Senior Eli Felton hit an NAIA B Standard in the triple jump. Felton placed first, jumping 14.06m, with Chase Maxey coming in second. Jordan Pohl and Van Lian totaled seven points in the high jump with a fifth and sixth place finish respectively.

Jacob Netral highlighted the field events, earning Crossrroads League Field Athlete of the Year. Netral placed first in the shot put, reaching an NAIA A Standard with a 17.14m throw. Christian Rios also hit an NAIA A Standard in the shot put, placing second, and Tyler Majors placed fifth.

In the final event of the league meet, Riehle, Givens, Thornton, and Lifrange combined their talents, finishing second in the 4x400m relay in a time of 3:20.81.

Following the meet, head coach Michael Holman was named the Crossroads League Coach of the Year.

Marian will now start preparing for the NAIA National Championships, which begins on March 2 at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex in Brookings, South Dakota.