Men's Track and Field | 5/30/2022 10:11:00 PM
Gulf Shores, Ala. – The McPherson College Men's Track and Field Team was represented last week at the NAIA Outdoor Championships by eight individuals, who competed in seven different events. The men tied for 37th place compiling a total of nine points across those seven events.
The championships got under way on Wednesday morning at 11:00 with Brady Blanka in the javelin. Blanka's best throw was on his final attempt, a heave of 57.92m giving him a 12th place finish. Later that afternoon, Dylan Templeman was honored as the NTFCCCA South Central Regional Field Athlete of the Year. He had to throw the Hammer right after the presentation and didn't get much time to warm up. His timing was definitely thrown off and he failed to get a legal throw in.
At the same time Templeman was in the Hammer ring, Quashad Washington, Rock Hardison, Owen Sutherland and Xavier Taylor ran the 4x100m relay. All three exchanges were clean, and the Bulldogs finished with a time of 41.82 landing them in the top 20 at 20th place. Taylor then rounded out the day by running in the 200m prelims. He ran a solid race, finishing in 25th place with a time of 21.93.
On day two of the championships, Templeman was the only Bulldog to compete. This time he was in the discus ring, his strongest event. His first throw of the event was a 50.83 and it would turn out being his best throw of the day. It was good enough to get him into the finals where he finished in 4th place, earning his 6th All-American plaque of his career.
On Friday, the final event for the Bulldogs was the Shot Put, with Templeman and Brett Oden competing. Oden's top throw was a 15.39 on his second attempt, which gave him a 23rd place finish in his first trip to nationals. Templeman threw a 16.97 on his first attempt which put him in 4th after the prelims. On his final throw he eclipsed the 17m mark with a 17.09 attempt. Unfortunately one of the other competitors passed him in the standings and he ended up in 5th place, earning another All-American Plaque for his trophy case.
"As always, the NAIA meet was a high quality meet," said Bulldog head coach Chad Clevenger. "I felt we held our own and competed well. It was also really good to send these seniors out at the national championship. They've represented McPherson College so well on the National stage over their careers."
