The Bob Jones University track and field teams made the trip to Central, South Carolina to open their outdoor season at the Susan Rouse Invitational hosted by Southern Wesleyan University. Three Bruins qualified for the NCCAA National Championships as BJU battled in a competitive field of schools including Montreat College, Brevard College, Morehouse College, and others.
"We were very excited today for this meet," said Head Coach Ken Roach. "Coming off of the indoor season has us in great shape for outdoor track. We have been working hard and building to this as a program and the fruits are starting to show. We were able to attack our races today in a more tactical way even through it is early in the season. We had three national qualifiers who had great effort in their events. Our throws continue to build and are hitting better marks on every effort. I am very proud of this team."
On the field, three lady Bruins competed in the javelin throw. Grace Bailey finished third overall with a distance of 27.07 meters. Finishing with just a couple inches behind her her was Abigail Woo with a throw of 26.87 meters.
Competing in the shot put, Bruins thrower Daniel Garian came in sixth overall with a distance of 11.48 meters on his third attempt. Back on the field for the discus event. Garian brothers Daniel and Joshua competed well in a field of tight competition. Joshua finished sixth overall with a throw of 33.64 meters followed by Daniel with a distance of 30.35 meters.
Back on the track, the Bruins competed in multiple events. In the 100 meter, Luke Fressel raced in the first heat to a time of 11.29 seconds followed by Leonardo Moto with a PR of 11.60. On the women's side, Mia Marks and Grace Bailey finished 11th and 14th overall.
Moto then raced in the 200 meter where he crossed the finish line with a time of 26.32.
In the 400 meter, Alyssa Marks charged through the finish to earn a new personal best and NCCAA national qualifying time of 1:02.65 coming in sixth overall. Teammate Melody Davis raced to a college best of 1:06.92. On the men's side, Isaac Vera Cruz competed in his first meet since December with a time of 55.49.
For the 800 meter, lady Bruins Kristen Dodds and Ainsley Zimmerman raced well with Dodds racing twice around the track to a time of 2:43.06. Competing for the men, Joel Batres Mena and Andrew Sarver crossed the finish line back to back with Mena earning a time of 2:03.80 followed two seconds later by Sarver.
Six Bruins represented BJU in the 1500 with Joy Hast and Elisabeth Farley racing for the women and Evan Seaman, Levi Gerbtiz, Daniel Kyle, and Luke VanDenBerge competing on the men's side. Seaman earned a top ten finish with a PR of 4:27.01.
Qualifying for nationals, Liesl Heinz sped around the track in the 5k to a new personal best time of 19:47.84 to finish third overall behind Montreat University and Southern Wesleyan University. Cora Gagne finished her 12 laps around the track with a time of 22:31.06. Sol Shafer led the Bruins in the men's 5k as he stopped the clock at 16:08.73. Coming across the finish line less than a minute later was teammate Marc Johnson.
After the track was set up, Misha Gray toed the line ready to compete in the 400 meter hurdles. As he made his way around the track, he broke one minute crossing the line fourth overall with a personal best and NCCAA qualifying time of 59:10.
Coach Roach then put together several relay teams as the women competed in the 4x100 before closing out the meet with the men and women racing in the 4x400.
Full results from Saturday's meet can be found
here.
Up next, the Bruins will travel to Columbia, South Carolina on March 15-16 to compete at the John Hunter Classic hosted by Columbia International University.
