Landry Long | The Echo
The Taylor track team defended its home turf this past weekend at the Taylor Invitational. The five-team meet resulted in a victory for both the men and the women, with impressive outings from several different Trojans.
On the men's side, senior Brandan Wilchcombe continued his success by claiming first place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.28 seconds. Freshman Joey Ferguson led the team in the 600-meter run, and freshman Austin Goggans sprinted to third place in the 200-meter run with a time of 24.36 seconds.
Junior Leslie Romer continued his dominant stretch in the 60-meter dash, sprinting to a time of 6.95 seconds. With several victories already under his belt, Romer has his eyes set on the ultimate accomplishment coming in March.
"I'm working on getting ready for nationals," Romer said. "My block start has been off for the past two weeks so that is my focus this weekend at DePauw. It's the most important part of the 60-meters because it is such a short race. If I can get my start together, I can see myself being very competitive at nationals in March."
Head coach David Neville was happy with Romer's performance and thinks he has the potential to compete for a top spot at the national meet.
"In the prelim, he had a really good race," Neville said. "We would've liked him to maybe run a little faster in the finals of the 60 meters being here at home. He still won the event, but we've been working on some different things in practice and ultimately our goal is to go and be able to contend for a championship at nationals."
Junior Aaron Scott led the Trojans in the 3,000-meter run, finishing in second place, while freshman Micah Bragg, junior Tanner Dye and sophomores Joe Beamish and Jonathan Taylor all joined him in the top six. The distance squad claimed the top three spots in the 5,000-meter run, with junior Matt Hall leading the charge with a time of 15:25.
Junior Harry Dantona had a strong performance in the field, winning the weight throw at 15.83 meters and coming in third in the shot put at 13.67 meters. Dantona also achieved the honor of being named the Crossroads League Field Athlete of the Week.
The women's side claimed a victory in the 4x800 meter relay in the freshman team of Rachel Blagg, Mae Elizabeth Gimre, Anna Souzis and Margie Crosby. The squad will also be taking a trip to the national meet with a qualifying time of 9:41.
Plenseh-Tay Sakeuh continued her stellar freshman campaign with a first place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.29 seconds, followed by another win in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.09 seconds. It was a busy day for Sakeuh, who also took second place in the long jump at 5.18 meters.
Senior Katie DeHaan led the Trojans in the 600-meter dash with a time of 1:40, her first 600-meter race since her sophomore season. DeHaan enjoyed being able to compete in this race for the first time in a long time and also took part in the 4x400 meter relay. Already heading to indoor nationals for one race, she aspires to make it two.
"At the Indiana Wesleyan meet, I ran in the distance medley relay, and we qualified in that for nationals," DeHaan said. "I'm really hoping this coming weekend to qualify in the 600-meters for nationals. For the 4x400 meter relay we would love to, it just takes all of us being healthy and having a really great day on the same day."
Neville is proud of his senior runner and looks forward to seeing what she can accomplish for her last go-around.
"She's come back, and we're really excited for her and what her season looks like for this being her senior year," said Neville. "She won the 600-meters, and she's not too far from qualifying for indoor nationals so we hope that this weekend she has good competition and can go into DePauw and hit a qualifying mark so she can make it to indoor nationals."
The Trojans also posted a dominant performance in the 3,000-meter run, having five runners cross the finish line in the top six. Sophomore Alex Berends won the race with a time of 10:28 while hitting the NAIA B-Standard, followed by freshman Michelle Franch, senior Taryn Seeland and junior Hannah Schroder to round out the top four. Sophomore Ellie Rodman also ran an impressive race in the mile with a time of 5:46.
The Trojans will have one more meet before the NAIA Indoor National Championships as they head to the DePauw Invitational this Saturday.
"photograph by Fayth Glock"
