Trojan Men Turn in Fourth-Place Finish at IWU

MARION, Ind. – The Taylor men's outdoor track and field team continued its season on Friday and Saturday at the 119th Annual Little States Championships hosted by Indiana Wesleyan.

The team accumulated 72 points, good for a fourth-place finish of the 15 teams. Among Crossroads League teams, TU finished third out of eight.

The Trojans' 4x800-meter relay team consisting of Nathan Brainer, Joel Mumaw, Ben Eiffert and Nate Conkel was successful in kicking off day one of the meet. That group hit NAIA B standard in a third-place performance as they crossed the finish line in 7:44.27.

Josh Forbes achieved TU's lone NAIA standard on Saturday with his second straight A-standard pole vault mark. The sophomore won the event by clearing 4.80 meters.

Also on Saturday, Conkel and Brainer turned in top-five finishes in the 800 meters, clocking a 1:54.96 and a 1:55.90, respectively, to take the second and fifth spots out of 66 competitors.

Mumaw, Eiffert and Bryce Noble each placed in the top-10 in the 1,500 meters, with Mumaw's time of 3:57.51 leading the way in fourth.

Ryan Hanak (14:51.92) and Luke Harber (14:53.52) finished one-two in the 5,000 meters out of 50 competitors, as both crossed in sub-15 minutes. Both times marked new personal bests for the sophomore classmates.

Bradley Braxton led a host of Trojans participating in the 400 meters with his top-10 performance of 51.56 seconds that ended eighth out of 46 finishers.

Jacob Parker snuck his way inside the top 10 in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.01 seconds, while Braden Bixler and Bennett Hill did the same in the 400-meter hurdles by clocking times of 56.52 and 58.18 seconds, respectively.

Jared Stayte earned his team points in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by finishing seventh out of 25 with his sub-10-minute time of 9:50.84.

Isaac Elkin and Jake Thompson also notched Taylor a few points in the long jump with marks of 6.67 and 6.29 meters that were good for fourth and seventh place out of 25 jumpers.

Head coach Derek Gay's squad is next in action at the Crossroads League Championships held in Marion, Ind., on May 2 and 3.