Pride wrap up NAIA Indoor Championships after Friday Events

BROOKINGS, S.D. - With six total qualifiers sent to the NAIA Indoor Championships, the Clarke University Track and Field ended their Indoor season on Friday's day two of the championships in Brookings, S.D. and the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex.

Led by Noah Church's ninth place finish in the 3000 meter racewalk, the Pride also saw Benjamin Vasquez, James Vandun, Allena Rowland, Grace Squires, and Tyler Kell compete among the NAIA's best for the 2022-23 indoor season.

Church raced to that ninth place time of 15:06.38 just ahead of Vasquez's 15:08.18 as the pair just missed out on scoring points for the Pride in their only event with multiple competitors.

Vandun's participation in the Heptathlon made him the first multi athlete to qualify for nationals ever on the men's side and first overall since 2017 when Krista Bushkofsky competed in the Pentathlon. Vandun finished 11th overall with a final point total of 4703 as his top individual events in the Heptathlon were both sixth place finishes in the long jump and in the pole vault.

Rowland was the lone member of the Pride to compete in multiple events at the NAIAs as she ran in both the 400 and 800 meter races finishing the 400 in 1:11.16 and the 800 in 2:21.29 to miss out in qualifying for the finals in both races.

Kell and Squires qualified in the high jump and pole vault respectively as Kell cleared his initial height of 1.96 meters on his third attempt to finish in 20th and Squires was unable to clear her initial height.

Those six individuals will now join the rest of their teammates into their training for the outdoor season with hopes of hitting their national qualifying standard for the outdoor championships in May.