BROOKINGS, S.D. – It might be compared to a father rejoicing for his daughter after winning the school spelling bee, while at the same time consoling his son for coming up just a bit short.
That's how Wayland Baptist track and field coach
Brian Whitlock was feeling Saturday at Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex after the Pioneer women successfully repeated as NAIA indoor national champions while the WBU men, in their own bid to repeat, finished second.
"We're trying to enjoy the women winning but at the same time kicking ourselves for not getting it done for the men," Whitlock said after three days of competition wrapped up in dramatic fashion…at least on the men's side. The women's competition was a runaway with Wayland's team of 11 amassing 83 points to easily prevail over runner-up Southern-New Orleans, which finished 20 points behind. Indiana Tech was third with 54.
"This is the toughest group of girls, tough mentally and physically. They didn't mess up in one event the entire meet," Whitlock said. "We knew going into today we should win, and we kept our foot on the gas pedal all day. I challenged these girls to perform and they did a phenomenal job."
It marked an NAIA women's record eighth indoor title, including three in four years, and is the eighth time Whitlock, who repeated as women's coach of the year, directed Wayland's women to a national indoor or outdoor title. He has two men's crowns.
"I love to watch this group of girls compete," he said.
The Pioneer men also competed well, but at the same time experienced a few hiccups that cost them a second straight title and eighth overall indoor championship. Incredibly, it's Wayland seventh runner-up finish indoors in the last 10 years.
"Lots of things went wrong on the last day," said Whitlock, adding that a couple of injuries and some poor race strategies were especially costly.
Wayland – which got a third national title from
Tre Hinds in the 600 plus a national meet record from Hinds,
Demetrius Turner,
Keiontae Williamson and
Quintaveon Poole in the 4x400 relay – wound up with 52 points, only four behind rival Indiana Tech's 56 in what was one of the closest competitions in event history. It was the Warriors' fifth title in the last six years.
"We should have won (but) we just let it slip through our fingers," Whitlock said. "Indiana Tech opened the door for us, we just didn't take it."
More on the men later. First let's celebrate the women's championship, which was spearheaded by senior
Tiona Owens and junior
Devin Johnson, who scored 20 points apiece and were named women's co-most valuable performers along with Emily Kearnehy of SCAD-Atlanta and Anna Shields of Point Park for an unusual four-way tie.
"Devin and Tiona were spectacular this weekend," Whitlock said.
Johnson repeated as national champion in both the 60 and 200 meters, running an indoor lifetime-best 24.08 seconds in the longer of the sprints. Johnson also was an all-American on the eighth-place 4x400 relay, joined by Owens,
Cheyenne Hill-Johnson and
Tiffany Cano.
Owens, meanwhile, also repeated as triple jump champion with a new school record (12.44m) and placed fourth in both the 60 hurdles and long jump. "Tiona is really good at what she does, which is competing and going out and taking care of business," Whitlock said over the versatile senior. "Ten minutes after winning the triple jump, she has to run over and do the hurdles. She's a winner."
Joining Johnson in the sprints was sophomore
Cheyenne Hill-Johnson, who placed third in the 60 and fifth in the 200 with an indoor PR 24.58. "Cheyenne had another great national meet," Whitlock said. "She has turned into a big-time performer. She gets to the national meet and runs fast, just like she did last year. Her and Devin gave us a lot of points in the sprints."
Cano, before anchoring the 4x4, just missed a national title in the 800, finishing second in 2:14.51 while
Teresha Jacobs took fourth. "Tiff was so close to winning the national title. If there would have been two more meters she would have won. She just ran out of real estate. But that's pretty good in an event she didn't even run in high school. She came from a small town in New Mexico and has really developed into a good runner and a wonderful young lady."
The coach said Cano, a senior, and Jacobs, a junior, "both had a very good weekend. They did a lot of running. Between Tiffany and Teresha they ran six quality races." On Friday they were joined by
Taylor Williams and
Elizabeth Williams in winning the 4x800 relay.
The two Williamses, Jacobs and
Jackline Cherono finished seventh in the distance medley relay, while Cherono was third and
Jackline Jemeli eighth in the 5,000.
"Cherono had a great meet for us. Thirty minutes after the 5k she anchored us home (running 1 mile) in the DMR. She's a special athlete and another of our tough kids."
He said Saturday's 5k didn't benefit Jemeli's style of running, but she's "another awesome girl willing to do whatever for the team. She came out late from a redshirt season and managed to become an all-American in the 5K four straight years. That's pretty special."
So is
Elizabeth Williams, whom Whitlock called "another example of someone doing whatever it takes. Liz was an individual all-American in an individual event every year and would have again this year if not for a stress fracture, but we won a national championship because of people like here.
"If you look at the teams we beat and the number of races with the limited number of girls we have, this is just an awesome group of kids, They buy into what we try to do here at Wayland, which is win championships but win with high character. They do a good job of being a complete winner, and I couldn't be happier for this group of girls.
"We have a great history here, and these athletes enjoy being a part of it and continuing that."
As perfectly as everything fell into place for the Wayland women, and even for the WBU men on Thursday and Friday, they splintered a bit Saturday.
Junior
Donte Irving was looking to repeat last year's title in the triple jump but injured his knee on his first attempt and did not make the final.
"He landed wrong and tweaked his knee, and it didn't go well after that," Whitlock said.
Another injury was incurred by senior
Raul Almaraz in the 5,000. Whitlock said the senior "was running the race of his life" when somebody fell right in front of him. "Raul tried to avoid him, but when the guy tried to get up Raul fell over him and twisted his ankle really bad."
In an event where Whitlock was hoping to pick up three or four points, Almaraz did not finish the race.
The coach blamed himself for a "tactical mistake" with Williamson in the 600. "I had him go out too hard when he should have set and kicked, and he went from third to sixth, plus got passed by an Indiana Tech guy," Whitlock explained. "My race strategy backfired. That one's going to be with me for awhile."
Then there was Poole, the defending national champion in the 200 and 400 who was last year's national MVP. In the 400, an event in which he set a national indoor meet record last year, Whitlock said Poole "didn't go out fast enough" and settled for third place. Turner "ran outstanding" and finished right behind him in fourth with a lifetime indoor best of 47-flat. "I've been coaching in the NAIA for 15 years, and that was the fastest 400 I've ever seen."
In the 200, Poole finished sixth after getting an "unlucky draw on the lane.
"Some of these things are little excuses on my part, but when you only lose (the team title) by four points, all those little things add up," Whitlock said.
Even when Wayland won, things seemed to be a struggle for the Pioneers.
While Hinds won the 600 for the third straight year, the senior fell short of his goal of setting a national record in the event, something he felt attainable especially after turning in the fifth-fastest collegiate time earlier this season. "Tre wasn't feeling his best this weekend," Whitlock said. "Still, for a guy to win three straight national championships in the same event is pretty good."
Willliamson also was an all-American in the 600 after finishing sixth, the same place junior
Derrick Reid finished in the 800, a spot ahead of freshman
Martin Harding. "We kind of ran out of gas in the 800, but those two guys did great. It was their fifth race of the competition, while for everybody else it was just their second or third race."
The meet certainly ended on a high note as Turner, Hinds, Williamson and Poole set the national record in the final event, the 4x400 relay, in 3:08.9. The old record was set by Wayland four years ago.
"The 4x4 was awesome," Whitlock said. "We knew going in the only way we could win (the meet) was for us to win and for something crazy – drop a baton, get disqualified – to happen to Indiana Tech. So we knew it was a long shot to win the team title, but that group of guys did really well. It was good to see Tre and Quintaveon go out with a national record and a national championship in that event."
Finally, Whitlock thanked his staff of trainer
Megan Hacker, volunteer Kesley Gittens, graduate assistant
Leon Boyd, and assistant
Kurt Henry. "Coach Henry did a great job this year. He should be women's assistant coach of the year. He coaches Devin, Cheyenne and Tiona, which is over 50 points of our group. He did a wonderful job."
NAIA National Championships
Saturday's Results
Finals
Women
Team Results: 1. Wayland Baptist 83; 2. Southern-New Orleans 63; 3. Indiana Tech 54; 4. Doane 32; 5. (tie) Point Park 28, Oklahoma City 28
Triple jump: 1.
Tiona Owens, 12.44m
60 hurdles: 4. Owens, 8.75
60: 1.
Devin Johnson, 7.53; 3.
Cheyenne Hill-Johnson, 7.59
800: 2.
Tiffany Cano, 2:14.51; 4.
Teresha Jacobs, 2:16.13
200: 1. Johnson, 24.08; 5. Hill-Johnson, 24.58
5,000: 3.
Jackline Cherono, 17:41.07; 8.
Jackline Jemeli, 18:00.78
DMR: 7. WBU (Jacobs,
Elizabeth Williams,
Taylor Williams, Cherono), 12:18.75
4x400 relay: 8. WBU (Johnson, Owens, Hill-Johnson, Cano), 4:11.46
Men
Team Results: 1. Indiana Tech 56; 2. Wayland Baptist 52; 3. Keiser 42; 4. Cumberlands 35; 5. Lindsey Wilson 35; 12. Oklahoma City 23
Triple jump: 13.
Donte Irving, 14.13m
400: 3.
Quintaveon Poole, 46.86; 4.
Demetrius Turner, 47.05
600: 1.
Tre Hinds, 1:17.42; 6.
Keiontae Williamson, 1:20.40
800: 6.
Derrick Reid, 1:54.73; 7.
Martin Harding, 1:54.88
200: 6. Poole, 21.44
5,000:
Raul Almaraz, DNF
4x400 relay: 1. WBU (Turner, Hinds, Williamson, Poole), 3:08.90
Friday's Results
Women
Preliminaries q=qualified for finals
800: 4.
Tiffany Cano, 2:15.86q; 8.
Teresha Jacobs, 2:16.46q; 9.
Elizabeth Williams, 2:17.54
60: 2.
Cheyenne Hill-Johnson, 7.55q; 4.
Devin Johnson, 7.57q
200: 2. Johnson, 24.24q; 5. Hill-Johnson, 24.77q
60 hurdles: 3.
Tiona Owens, 8.81q
Finals
4x800 relay: 1. WBU (
Taylor Williams, Jacobs,
Elizabeth Williams, Cano), 9:11.19
Long jump: 4.
Tiona Owens, 5.75m; 19; Taylor Imani, 5.30m
Men
Preliminaries q=qualified for finals
60 hurdles: 27.
Donte Irving, 8.76
400: 1.
Quintaveon Poole, 47.31q; 5.
Demetrius Turner, 47.81q
800: 4.
Derrick Reid, 1:51.01q; 6.
Martin Harding, 1:55.11q
600: 1.
Tre Hinds, 1:19.05q; 6.
Keiontae Williamson, 1:20.27q; 16. Taylor Jackson, 1:23.34
200: 6.
Quintaveon Poole, 21.56q
Finals
Long jump: 26.
Daniel Hurn, 6.31m
4x800 relay: 1. WBU (
Martin Harding,
Derrick Reid,
Keiontae Williamson,
Tre Hinds), 7:36.94
Thursday's Preliminaries
Women
4x400 relay: 4. WBU (
Tiffany Cano,
Cheyenne Hill-Johnson,
Devin Johnson,
Tiona Owens), 3:52.24
4x800 relay: 4. WBU (
Tiffany Cano,
Tanya Pavez,
Teresha Jacobs,
Elizabeth Williams), 9:18.40
DMR: 5. WBU (
Teresha Jacobs,
Elizabeth Williams,
Taylor Williams,
Jackline Cherono), 12:15.49
5,000: 4.
Jackline Cherono, 17:56.26; 7.
Jackline Jemeli, 17:48.47
Men
4x400 relay: 4. WBU (
Tre Hinds,
Quintaveon Poole,
Charles Lee,
Demetrius Turner), 3:13.88
4x800 relay: 3. WBU (
Martin Harding,
Derrick Reid,
Tre Hinds,
Jackson Taylor), 7:45.49
5,000: 10.
Raul Almaraz, 15:05.37
