Halterman Crowned Champion in 10,000-Meters as Taylor Leads After First Day of NAIA National Championships

MARION, Ind. – Taylor finished the first day of the NAIA National Championships in first place due to a pair of NAIA All-Americans, including Jaynie Halterman, who won the 10,000-meters for the first National Champion in Outdoor Track for the Trojans since 1982.

Halterman raced away from the field with seven laps to go and won by over 25 seconds in an impressive display. Her 34:10.10 in the 10,000-meters was the second-fastest time in NAIA National Championship history. The freshman phenom ran in second for most of the race before an unmatched kick saw her lap nearly the entire field en route to victory. Halterman now has three NAIA National Championships and will look for her fourth beginning Thursday in the 5,000-meters

Kiana Siefert had a phenomenal day, leaping her way to a third-place finish in the long jump.  The junior carded a distance of 19 feet one inch in her third jump, holding her in third throughout the finals and just an inch behind the champions.

Noel VanderWall qualified for the finals in 1,500-meters after finishing fifth with a time of 4:36.77. The senior competed in the second heat, which had the five quickest times of the preliminaries and is focused on repeating her All-American performance from a year ago in the finals on Friday.

The 4x800-meter relay team of Abby Mays, Emersyn Funk, Addie Draper, and VanderWall finished third in the third heat of the preliminaries, with a time of 9:19.77 and qualified for the finals with the fastest time of any non-automatic qualifier. The finals will take place on Thursday at 6:10 pm.

Claire Bailey capped a terrific sophomore season in the 400-meter hurdles and put up a time of 1:03.47, which landed her a 13th-place finish.

Audrey Brinkruff finished just out of qualifying position in the steeplechase, coming in 15th in the preliminaries, with a time of 11:27.25, 0.12 behind the final qualifier.

Sam Patterson was the final Trojan to take the track on Wednesday and ran a career-best time of 36:30.09 to cross the finish line in 12th in the 10,000-meters.

Taylor finished the day with 16 points, five more than the next closest team in the early going of the NAIA Outdoor Track National Championships.

The Trojans have a trio of athletes running in preliminaries on Thursday, along with the 4x800-meter relay team competing in the finals, with Mays and Draper beginning the day for Taylor at 2:30 pm in the 800-meter preliminaries.