By Zachary Shore, NAIA Media Coordinator
GULF SHORES, Ala. - (Complete results) Only two national champions were crowned on Thursday at the Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium and Gulf Shores Sports Complex during the first day of the 2014 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. Due to inclement weather, day one competition was suspended for the first time since 2004, with a revised schedule to take place on Friday.
Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) claimed the first title of the day as junior Amy Blucker took the women’s hammer throw title with a winning throw of 54.84m (179-11.25). Kali Robb of Concorida (Neb.) took second while Grand View (Iowa) senior, Jena Krebs, took third in the event.
For the second straight season a Concordia team swept the top three positions in the men’s hammer throw, as Concordia’s (Neb.) Cody Boellstorff won the event while teammates Zachary Lurz and Joshua Slechta finished second and third. Boellstorff won with a toss of 62.66m (205-7.25). The sweep is just the second time in NAIA history that a men’s team has swept the top three spots.
The women’s heptathlon completed four of the seven events and Northwestern’s (Iowa) Karen Ettleman has scored 3,234 points and has a 58 point lead over Cornerstone’s Brittany Murray. Ettleman is looking to win the Raiders first title in the event while Murray would be the second straight Golden Eagle to win the event.
In the men’s decathlon, Doane’s (Neb.) Kale Wolken got off to a good start in his title defense. With half of the 10 events finished, Wolken has tallied 3,856 points, 364 points better than second-place James Bullock of Embry-Riddle (Fla.) who collected 3,492 points. If Wolken can maintain his lead, the Tigers will be the first team to win three consecutive event titles since former member Azusa Pacific (Calif.) did so from 2000-02.
Three other events completed trials on the first day, highlighted by Wayland Baptist’s 4x100m men’s and women’s teams qualifying with the fastest times in their events. The women finished in a time of 44.91 while the men posted a time of 40.04.
Agnes Abu of Wiley College is the top qualifier in the women’s 1,500m with a time of 4:30.02 while Concordia’s (Ore.) Matthew Clowes led the men’s field with a time of 3:52.63, just .03 seconds ahead of teammate Brad Prettyman.
Doane’s Rachel Bramhall was the top qualifier in the women’s 400m hurdles with a time of 1:00.54 while Deshawn Woods of Indiana Tech was the top men’s finisher with a time of 51.40.
With just one event scored on each side, Concordia (Neb.) sits atop both the men’s and women’s team standings with the women scoring 15 points and the men tallying 25. Olivet Nazarene is second on the women’s side with 10 points while Grand View is third with nine. Southern Oregon is second on the men’s side with five points while Bethel (Ind.) is third with four.
There are several changes to day two of the 64th Annual Men’s and 35th Annual Women’s NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships with the women’s 10,000 meter run kicking things off at 8:00 a.m. with the men to follow at 8:45 a.m. The women’s javelin will resume at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow while the women’s long jump with be contested at 1:00 p.m. The women’s pole vault will resume at 4:00 p.m. while the men’s javelin will be pushed to 4:30 p.m.tomorrow.
The 200m trials will be contested at 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. with the women running before the men. The 4x800m relay will be a two heat timed final with the women competing at 6 p.m. followed by the men at 6:30 p.m. The men’s and women’s 5,000m will be contested as a pair of one section finals on Saturday. The women’s 3,000m Steeplechase trials will be run at 6:55 p.m. followed by the women’s and men’s 4x400m relays at 7:45 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., respectively.