May 1, 2006

NAIA runners competed with the country's top athletes at national meets throughout the states.  NAIA Track & Field was represented at the Drake Relays and the Penn Relays during the last two weeks.

Drake Relays

The Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) distance medley team of Bethany McCoy, Sarah Juenger, Abby Heinold and Carmin Green sprinted past the rest of the field at the 97th annual Drake Relays, winning in a new-meet time of 11:35.01.  The time broke ONU's record from last year by more than eight seconds.

McCoy took the baton trailing by 20 meters, before overtaking the leader and winning by 50 meters.

McCoy, Heinold and Green teamed with Cheri Hoffmann to place second in the college division of the 4x800-Meter Relay, running a 9:05.01.

It marked the second straight year that the Distance Medley Relay Team won and the 4x800-Meter Relay took second.

Lindenwood University (Mo.) women were led by freshman Kayann Thompson who broke her school record in the 800 meter run on Saturday, placing third with a time of 2:11.20. The women's 4x100 meter relay placed fourth in the finals on Saturday with an improved national qualifying time of 46.77. Freshman Anna-Kay Campbell placed sixth in the long jump with a mark of 19-9.50.

Penn Relays

Simon Fraser University (B.C.) women's 4x800m relay team of Kristen Kolstad, Heather Mancell, Julia Howard, Rebecca Johnstone finished in sixth place out of 39 teams in the Women's 4X800-meter relay. The Clan were the only Canadian University and NAIA representative at the competition. SFU finished in a time of 8:42.12, one second faster than the Clan's 2005 Outdoor NAIA record. The University of Texas won the race in a time of 8:31.06.

An impressive run by Rebecca Johnstone allowed the Clan to edge out the squad from the University of Florida by one-hundredth of a second, as Johnstone ran a fast time of 2:05.20 in the final leg.