BROOKINGS, S.D. – The LC State men highlighted day two of the 2022 NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships, with both Clayton VanDyke and Cole Olsen qualifying for event finals. VanDyke cruised to a second-place overall finish in the 800m prelims, while Olsen advanced with a seventh-place mark in the 3,000m.
VanDyke won his heat of the 800m by nearly one second with a time of 1:53.85. He has the top seed time coming into the meet and will be vying for a national title on Saturday at 12:15 p.m. PT.
“Clayton and Cole both continued to run well,” Head Coach Mike Collins said. “Clayton ran the race plan to perfection. Got out front and basically ran as fast as he needed to get to the final. He looked very comfortable and relaxed, so excited to see him racing for a title tomorrow.”
Olsen advanced to Saturday’s event final with a time of 8:29.80 in the 3000m run. He finished seventh overall in the prelims and fourth in his preliminary heat. He will face stiff competition for an All-American finish in the finals on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
“Cole’s race was all over the place to start with,” Collins said. “All bunched up with Cole trapped inside, then he finally got out of the pack, put in a big surge to go out front and held that until about 4-500m to go, then raced to stay in the top four to make the final. Probably a bigger surge than he needed, which is good to learn there rather than in the final, so excited to see him come back tomorrow and vie for another All-American honor.”
Lewiston native Madigan Kelly competed in her second event of the national meet in the 60m hurdles. The freshman finished third in her heat with a time of 8.94 and was 16
th overall.
“Madigan did a great job in the hurdles,” Collins said. “Only .02 off of a personal-best at a very high-pressure event, especially for a freshman, is a great outcome. This experience will pay huge dividends in the future to have seen what it will take to make the finals of that event.”
Emily Adams also competed in the 3000m run, but ran into complications during the race. She finished 23
rd with a time of 10:59.30.
“Emily also had a good race going, then a bit of a misstep in the race created an issue in the hip and hamstring that didn’t really kick in until she went to bump up the pace and realized it was a bigger deal than it originally appeared,” Collins explained. “We felt her conditioning, race prep and race plan were ideal for how things were going, so disappointing to see the outcome that we did. She will bounce back in outdoor and we are already looking forward to it.”
VanDyke and Olsen will close out the weekend at nationals tomorrow afternoon. Live results and live stream links can be found at lcwarriors.com.
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