Thompson, 4x800 Relay Team Lead TU in Day One of CL Championships
MARION, Ind. – The Taylor men's outdoor track and field team sits in third place with 32 team points at the conclusion of Thursday's events at the Crossroads League Championships hosted by Indiana Wesleyan.
Marian leads the meet by a wide margin with 94 team points, while IWU's 36.50 points is second. The Trojans cling to a three-point advantage over Grace, who sits in fourth after day one.
The 4x800-meter relay team of Nate Conkel, Nathan Brainer, Joel Mumaw and Ben Eiffert hit NAIA A standard in a third-place, all-league finish. The team raced to a time of 7:34.40, or nearly 10 seconds faster than the same team's previous mark at the Little State Championships. That time also stands as the third fastest in the NAIA as of Thursday.
Jake Thompson stole the show for TU in the jumping events with a pair of third-place and season-best efforts. The senior cleared a high jump of 2.02 meters and earned his third-place finish out of 16 competitors with a mark of 6.84 meters in the long jump.
Thompson's two jumps gave Taylor six points apiece, while Isaac Elkin added to the total in the long jump with a mark of 6.73 meters to grab sixth place in the event.
Josh Forbes also boosted the Trojans' points total with a second-place pole vault effort of 4.90 meters. The sophomore was the only one of the 10 competitors to clear that mark on his first attempt.
TU finishes up the CL Championships on Friday with events beginning at 9 a.m.