The Taylor women’s track and field team placed fourth at the Crossroads League Championships on Thursday and Friday.
With 125.50 points, the Trojans tallied up several Nationals qualifiers on both the A and B standard level, a school record, four Crossroads League Championships and seven All-League titles.
Sophomore Kiana Siefert was a dominant force during the competition, contributing 36 of Taylor’s points. Her first-place performance in the long and triple jumps earned her Women's Most Valuable Athlete for Field Events over the entire meet.
These performances, along with her part in the second place 4x100m relay team (sophomore D’Arjha Davis, freshman Nicole Domene, freshman Jessie Beaumont, Siefert), third place in the 100m hurdles and seventh place finish in the 400m hurdles lead her to receive the honor of Female Athlete of the Meet.
Siefert’s performances in the long jump and the 100m hurdles were strong enough for NAIA B-standard qualifying marks for Nationals. Four other standards for the women were met, including the 4x800m team of senior Emily Johnson, sophomore Noel VanderWall, senior Olivia Jeanette and junior Abby Mays who placed third in the conference and earned an A standard with a time of 9:06.58.
VanderWall also qualified for Nationals with A standard in the 1500m. Her second-place time of 4:33.42 set a new school record for the Trojans. Also earning points in the 1500 was sophomore Kaitin Burden.
Mays earned individual honors in the 800m, placing third and hitting B-standard with a time of 2:14.84. Johnson earned a point for Taylor as well at eighth place with her time of 2:17.96. D’Arjha Davis placed fourth in the 200m and second in the 100m with times of 25.12 and 12.32, respectively.
Other points earned by the Trojans included senior Mollie Gamble, placing first in the 10k with a time of 37:53.89. Senior Ahna Niedeck placed first in the steeplechase earning her fourth year as League Champion in that event. Junior Audrey Brinkruff placed second at the same event with a time that solidified her bid to the National meet with an A-standard qualification.
Freshmen Sam Patterson and Claire Bailey placed fifth in the 5k and the 400m hurdles respectively. Freshman Nadia Rhodes added points to the count from her high jump seventh-place finish. Domene placed seventh in the 100m and was a part of the 4x400m team alongside fellow freshmen Addie Draper, Elise Hoylman and Renee Hoylman who placed fifth.
The track and field team will end their season at the NAIA National Championships hosted by IWU on May 22.
