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Fadden Breaks Another Record, One of Four Highlander Marks to Fall

(North Canton, Ohio)—Houghton track and field athletes set four new college marks, had three runners qualify for the national meet and won four events at the Jack Hazen Open at Malone College over the weekend.

            For the second straight week sophomore Kaitlin Fadden broke a long-standing Houghton College record—this time in the 5K, after shattering the 10K mark last week. Fadden’s 18:03.44 broke the nine-year-old standard of 18:16.0 held by former Highlander and NAIA All-American Tenniel Tower.

            “Obviously, we had some very good performances by several athletes at this meet,” said Bob Smalley, Houghton’s head track and field coach, “but Katie Fadden breaking the second school record in two weeks is most impressive.”

            Smalley noted that Fadden’s record was more noteworthy because she had little competition in winning the race. “She literally broke this record alone,” he said, “I expect that Katie will run sub-18:00 when she has someone to push her, which will be a huge accomplishment.”

            Also breaking college records were Naomi Christensen (pictured above) in the 200M (26.34), Zach Adams in the 5K race walk (24:45.0) and Joe Campagna in the 1000M (2:44.14). Christensen shaved a full tenth off the 200M mark, which had stood for five years. Adams and Campagna set new standards by virtue of being the first Highlanders to compete in their events.

            Adams’ performance earned him a second-place finish in his race, and automatically qualified him for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ (NAIA) national championship meet. Fadden also gained a spot at nationals, as did Rachel Rhodes, who posted a time of 16:07.12 in winning the 3K race walk. Christensen earned provisional qualification in the 400M, with a time of 57.81, which was good for second place in her race.

            Other impressive Highlander performances included Darby Emerson winning the women’s 800M in 2:18.37, a personal record, and the men’s 4 X 800M relay team of Johnny Kimani, Jesse McConnell, Josiah Snelgrove and Dan Ballard taking first in 8:01.18.

            Ballard also finished third in the 1500M (4:04.03) and Steve Scott took third in the 400M hurdles with a time of 55.69.

            The track and field teams will compete again on Thursday at the Houghton Invitational, held at the Alumni Athletic Complex in Houghton and starting at 4 p.m.

 

Women:

• Top-10 finishers:

  • Bethany Christensen – 10^th in the 100M

  • Naomi Christensen – 5^th in the 200M, 2^nd in the 400M

  • Darby Emerson – 1^st in the 800M

  • Veronica Caldwell – 4^th in the 1500M

  • Kaitlin Fadden – 1^st in the 5K

  • Heather Sayre – 7^th in the 5K

  • Rachel Rhodes – 1^st in the 3K race walk

  • Sarah Whipple – 9^th in the 100M hurdles

  • Hannah Gardner – 6^th in the hammer

  • Angie Smalley – 10^th in the hammer

 Men:

• Top-10 finishers:

  • Josiah Snelgrove – 6^th in the 800M

  • Dan Ballard – 3^rd in the 1500M

  • Jacob Connor – 10^th in the 5K

  • Zach Adams – 2^nd in the 3K race walk

  • Steve Scott – 5^th in the 110M hurdles

  • David Jones – 7^th in the 110M hurdles

  • Steve Scott – 3^rd in the 400M hurdles

  • Men’s 4 X 800M relay (Kimani, McConnell, Snelgrove, Ballard)– 1^st

  • Jesse Braswell and Aaron Williams, tied for 8^th in the pole vault