
Alyssa Tyler editor in chief
The Gorillas took home their second national title in two years at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field National Championship.
Pitt State gathered 86 points to win the title. Second place was given to Adams State, with 42. Then Grand Valley State clinched third place with 29 points.
“It was nice, it was cool you know, in the sense of what we could have gone in and actually done compared to how we got the job done. We still ended up winning, still it was not a pretty two days, but we went in and got the job done,” said junior and track and field athlete, LJ Kiner.
The men’s team took home five individual event championship titles.
Cordell Tinch took two events home, winning the 60-meter hurdles. He also broke the meet record with a time of 7.41 seconds. Tinch now has seven of the top eight times recorded in DII history. Tinch then won the high jump with a clearance of 7 feet 1.25 inches. T
The 4×400 meters relay with Sam Tudor, Bailey Stone, Corey Lyons, and Braylen Brewer won the race with a time of 3:09. 63.
Treyvon Ferguson won the triple jump with a best mark of 52-1.25.
Kiner took home the gold in the long jump with a mark of 8.04 meters.
“Truly I thought it was going to be a hard fight between me and my teammate since he was going to come out on top, but I ended up winning it all,” Kiner said.
Sophomore Daylin Williams was a runner-up in the 60 m hurdles with a time of 7.71. Brewer also had a runner up finish in the 400 meters with a time of 47.09. Sophomore A.J Evans broke a Pittsburg State University record with a time of 20.90 in the 200 meters. That time gave him an All-America finish. Evans finished third overall in the 60 meters too, with 6.68.
TJ Caldwell, Xavier Carmicheal, and Lyons earned All-American honors with the following events and times. Caldwell scored seventh with a time of 8.00 in the 60 m hurdles. Carmichel took home an All-America finish with a time of 6.72 in the 60 meters, finishing 6th place overall. Lyons earned an All-American with a sixth-place finish in the 400 m, ending the race with a time of 47.56.
“I’m really just gearing up and getting ready to get back into it truly just I’m really excited for outdoors, so I think it’s just more fun to me so ready to start doing everything outdoors,” Kiner said.
The track and field team will compete at their first outdoor meet of the season on March 23 to March 24 at Emporia State University.