Landry Long | The Echo
The Taylor men's and women's track team posted impressive performances Saturday at the Indiana Wesleyan Invitational. With stellar outings from the sprint, field and distance squads, the school's record board will soon see many updates.
Sophomore Joe Beamish ran for a personal record on the men's distance side in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:45, while the women's side dominated the distance events, including a medley relay team of seniors Jane Hawks, Katie DeHaan, Sarina Oleson and sophomore Alex Berends. The team hit the automatic qualification mark for the national championship with a time of 12:29.
On the field side, freshman Kody Pritt finished fifth in the high jump with a leap of 1.84 meters, while junior Harry Daytona threw for a distance of 15.82 meters for a fourth place finish in the shot put. The women's field team was led by freshman Miriam Wood, who not only took third in the triple jump with a leap of 10.89 meters, but also finished second in the 600-meter run. Freshman Brianna Jordahl also took home seventh place in the shot put with a throw of 11.20 meters.
With excellent outings across the board for the team, stand-outs included freshman Plenseh-Tay Sakeuh, junior Leslie Romer and senior Brandan Wilchcombe. All three athletes broke school records in their events.
Sakeuh broke her own school record in the long jump with a leap of 5.59 meters, automatically qualifying for the NAIA Indoor National Championship. She also placed first in the 60-meter hurdles with an 'A' standard time of 8.91 seconds.
Feeling confident with her long jump performance, Sakeuh also believes that she has room for improvement in the hurdles.
"Long jump was really good," Sakeuh said. "Hurdles was a messy race but I still got first so it was good, but at the same time there's still stuff to improve on."
Starting off her track career with a strong campaign, Sakeuh realizes how blessed she is to be a part of something much bigger than just running and competing.
"Just the fact that we pray together, and whenever you're running you can hear teammates from way across the other side of the gym cheering for you," Sakeuh said. "It's just really nice that we have the common bond that we're running for Christ, but we're also united in our day-to-day lives and on the track."
On the men's side, Romer and Wilchcombe sprinted their way to a combined three school records. Romer won and qualified for indoor nationals in both the 60- and 200-meter dash, while Wilchcombe broke the TU record in the 60-meter hurdles and also qualified for nationals.
After battling numerous injuries over the past few years, Romer was pleased with his performance and his ability to race again. He now has his eyes set toward the national meet with high hopes for success.
"We have indoor nationals at the beginning of March, and the number one goal is to be All-American, but I still want to just go there and be competitive," Romer said. "The goal is still to win at the end of the day, but I'd definitely like to make it in the finals in the 60-meter."
Romer also qualified for the national meet in the 200-meter dash, but he isn't sure whether he will be running the event or not.
After a rough race in the heat trial, Wilchcombe refocused with the help of his coach, coming out victorious in the finals.
"Once the gun went off, I just went out," Wilchcombe said. "I got out of the blocks a little late, but as I saw my competitors ahead of me, it was just a fight. Coach talked about the theme being focus, like fighting for being focused. Finish your race. So I just worked hard throughout the hurdles and came out with a personal best and broke my record again."
Coach David Neville was very proud of his three record-setting sprinters and looks forward to seeing what they can accomplish in the future.
"Plenseh-Tay Sakeuh is doing really good in the hurdles," said Neville. "She didn't run her fastest time but she ran close to her fastest time this past weekend. She also had a monster jump in the long jump which was awesome, right now sitting at number two in the nation, so we're really excited about that, and with how she's performing and competing."
Neville also believes that Romer has the ability to continue to decrease his times and move up in the national ranking and Wilchcombe will continue to drop his times in the hurdles.
The Trojans will spike up this Saturday when TU hosts its own invitational in the KSAC.
"photograph by Cam Andry"
