Outdoor Nationals (5-25-07)

May 25, 2007

Fresno, CA- After day two of competition at the 2007 NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Graceland University track and field representatives will be traveling home having wrapped up a solid showing of competition.

With three athletes representing GU, the Yellowjackets finished up athletics for the University with their solid showing at the national championships.

Completing his second day of competition on Friday, Ben Brummit finished out the decathlon with a solid ninth place finish in the grueling, 10 event competition.

Brummit started day two by competing in the 110-meter hurdles where he placed 11th with a time of 16.69 seconds. After a 13th place finish in the men’s discus at 89’11” (27.42 meters), Brummit moved forward to take part in the pole vault competition. Brummit finished ninth in the pole vault with a height of 11’7.75” (3.55 meters).

With only two events left, Brummit took on the javelin throw next. An 11th place standing would follow as he notched a throw of 149’5” (45.54 meters). In the final event, Brummit placed his heighest overall as he tallied a second place finish in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:27.35. Cody Ingold of Doane College finished first with a time of 4:24.63.

Sergiy Oliynyk of Wayland Baptist University (TX) would be crowned the NAIA National Champion in the men’s decathlon with a total of 6,733 points. Brummit’s ninth place finish tallied him 6,151 total points in the event.

Two other Graceland athletes were also in action on Friday with junior James Thomas competing in the 100-meter dash and Jaclyn Keil taking part in the women’s 5000-meter run. Both athletes would post solid times but were unable to make it to their respective finals in their events.

Thomas posted a time of 11.08 second in the preliminaries which was good enough to qualify for the semi-finals of the highly-competitive event. Thomas finished 14th in the semis with a time of 10.88 seconds. Mike Rodgers of Oklahoma Baptist took the title with a winning time of 10.21 seconds.

Jaclyn Keil, a Minnesota native and senior runner for head coach Kent Allshouse and the Yellowjackets, put together a time of 18:40.93 to finish 10th in heat one of the race. Keil’s time was good enough for a 19th place finish in the pre-lims.


For More Information on Graceland University Athletics Contact:
Michael Brown, Sports Information Director
(641) 784-5318
mibrown@graceland.edu