OME, Ga. – Southern Wesleyan track and field wrapped up their first outdoor national championship on Thursday in the National Christian College Athletic Association meet hosted by Shorter University.
The women finished 14th out of 26 scoring teams with 13 points and the men finished in a tie for 20th out of 24 teams with five points. Shorter won the men's and women's side with 141 points for each team.
Day Three
The Warriors wrapped up their stay at their first outdoor national championship meet with six top-8 performances on Saturday. On the men's side Jhante McMillan took 4th in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 54.43, qualifying for the NAIA meet in the process.
The women saw a lot of success as well with four different ladies scoring. Olivia Bush took 8th in both the 100 meter hurdles (16.02) and the 400 meter hurdles (1:06.77) while teammate Jess Maggio took 7th in the 100 hurdles (15.32). The 4x100 meter relay team placed 5th after running a time of 49.08 seconds. The 4x400 team did not run after an injury forced them to withdraw. Leeann Gibson placed 6th in the shot put with a throw of 11.98 meters.
Day Two
The Warriors saw limited action on Friday with only a handful of events on the track.
SWU qualified 6th in the 4x100 meter relay with a time of 49.57 while two members of that relay team – Jess Maggio and Olivia Bush – also went on to qualify in the 100 meter hurdles. Maggio ran a time of 15.56 and Bush clocked in at 15.63 to both make Saturday's finals. Bush also placed 9th in the javelin throw with a mark of 34.91 meters.
Lavornne Taylor and Logan Thiel turned in 11th and 15th place finishes in the 200 meter dash, missing out on Saturday's finals. Taylor posted a time of 25.84 and Thiel and mark of 26.25. On the men's side Keith Johnson false started in the 400 meter dash, the only competitor for SWU men on the day.
Day One
The Warriors only saw action in six events on the day, with only two finals. Amber King became the first to score in the meet by placing 7th in the long jump with a mark of 5.27 meters. King will also compete in the triple jump on Saturday.
In prelims action Jhante McMillan qualified 3rd in the 400 meter hurdles after clocking a 55.21. On the women's side Olivia Bush turned in a 1:05.40 in that event to qualify 7th. That was also a personal best for Bush. Finals for both the men's and women's 400 meter hurdles will be held on Saturday.
The women's 4x400 meter relay team turned in a season-best performance, knocking five seconds off of their time last week, to qualify fifth with a time of 3:56.64. That time is good enough to meet the NAIA "B" standard. Finals for the event will be the final race of the meet on Saturday.
Also in action on Thursday was Leeann Gibson in the discus and Jess Maggio in the 100 meter dash. Gibson finished 18th in the event with a throw of 33.75 meters while Maggio placed 11th and did not qualify for finals with a time of 12.81. Both athletes will be back in action throughout the meet.
