Scott Leads Strong Highlander Showing at AMC Meet
(North
Canton, Ohio)
— Steve Scott set a Houghton College record in one event, won another
and finished second in two others at the American Mideast Conference
(AMC) track and field championship meet over the weekend, sharing the
title of Outstanding Field
Athlete of the Meet.
Scott’s performance was the highlight of a strong showing from
both the men’s and women’s teams as the athletes set four school
records, won two events, had eight second–place finishes and were third
in three other events. The men’s team finished fourth of eight teams,
while the women were fifth out of nine.
Each team also set two provisional qualifying marks and had two
automatic qualifiers for the National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics’ national championship meet.
Scott
(shown at left running in an earlier meet at Houghton) captured
one of the provisional marks when he ran a 54.98 in the 400M
intermediate hurdles, taking second place. He was also second in the
110M high hurdles, running a 15.2. Scott won the conference long jump
title with a leap of 21-10.75. He also ran a leg in both the 4 X 100M
and 4 X 400M relays, threw the javelin (121-5) and ran a personal best
of 11.48 in the 100M. Finally, the highlight of his busy and successful
day was setting a school record in the 200M dash with a 22.72.
Naomi Christensen also set a Houghton College record when she
finished second in the 200M with a 26.20. Christensen had held the
record herself, and actually broke it twice during the meet. Christensen
finished second in the 400M, too, running a 58.06.
Christensen also ran the anchor leg for the 4 X 400M relay that
set a school record of 4:06.29. Darby Emerson, Lydia Parsons and
Carolynn Tomlinson were the other members of that relay.
Emerson set a provisional qualifying mark for the national meet
in the 800M. Her 2:17.39 was good enough for second in that event. The
men also took second place in the 800M as Josiah Snelgrove ran a
1:56.46.
Snelgrove played a part in the men’s 4 X 800M relay, too, helping
that team take second place with a provisional qualifying time of
7:47.75. Dan Ballard, Jesse McConnell and Johnny Kimani ran the other
three legs.
Kaitlin Fadden continued to topple school records and post
national-qualifying times. She ran a school-record 11:41.16 in the 3K
steeplechase to take third place and earn a provisional berth. It was
the fourth Houghton College record Fadden has broken this spring; she
previously set marks at the half-marathon, 10K and 5K distances. She has
qualified for the nationals in all four events.
“No other Houghton College distance runner has come close to this
accomplishment,” said Bob Smalley, the Highlanders’ head coach.
A teammate who will join Fadden at the national meet is race
walking specialist Rachel Rhodes. Rhodes won the 3K race walk at the AMC
meet with a 16:05.72, improving upon her national qualifying time.
On the men’s side, Zach Adams qualified for the national meet in
a race walking event as well. His 24:54.47 in the 5K event was good
enough for second place.
Both men and women had competitors take third place in the triple
jump. Lydia Parsons posted a 33-8.75 while Bruce Mourhess went 40-4.75.
The Houghton athletes will compete again Friday and Saturday
April 25-26 when the Highlanders host their own invitational meet at the
Alumni Athletic Complex.
Photo by Jake Connor
