Paye, DMR Squad Qualify at Grinnell Invite

Grinnell--The William Penn men's track and field team secured a couple more national qualifiers as it compiled a strong showing at the Grinnell Invitational Saturday.

As a team, WPU was second out of 11 squads with 113 points, while host Grinnell won the crown with 135.5 points.

The distance medley relay crew led WPU's huge day.  The quartet of Brandon Williams (Sr., Fountain, Colo., Engineering Technology), Andrew Miller (So., Le Claire, Iowa, Exercise Science), D'Artagnon Beaver (Sr., Rockford, Ill., Human Services), and Showalter Johnson (Sr., Nassau, Bahamas, New Media) is now NAIA Nationals bound with a winning and 'B' standard time of 10:19.65.  The performance also breaks a school record that was most recently set a year ago.

Tony Paye (Fr., Johnston, Iowa, Exercise Science) also punched his ticket for nationals, winning the 60-meter hurdles in a provisional standard time of 8.14 seconds.  Paye was also sixth in the 60-meter dash in 7.17 seconds (7.05 in prelims).

Along with his effort on the DMR team, Beaver won as an individual as well, taking the 3,000-meter run title in 8:46.82.

Anthony Weaver (So., Demopolis, Ala., Mechanical Engineering) also claimed gold, besting the triple jumpers at 46-10.25, while grabbing bronze in the long jump at 21-1.5.

Travaughn Robbins-Hall (Fr., Lauderhill, Fla., Software Engineering) guided a successful sprint squad as he was third in the 60-meter dash (7.05) and 12th in the 200-meter dash (23.66).  A total of seven Statesmen placed in the top half in the 60.

Rayan Antonia (So., Willensted, Curacao, Business Management) (12th, 7.23), Emanuel Johnson (Sr., Brooklyn, N.Y., Industrial Technology) (13th, 7.24), Christopher Smith (Sr., Chicago, Ill.) (16th, 7.31), Micah Mills (So., Houston, Texas, Psychology) (18th, 7.33), and Bennett Polite (Jr., Kearney, Mo., Fine Arts) (19th, 7.35) were in the 60's top 20 as well.

Polite, who was ninth (23.37), and Smith, who was 18th (24.23), performed well in the 200 as well.

Jaden Loveless (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa, Industrial Technology) rounded out the sprinting performances as he was seventh in the 400-meter dash in 53.72 seconds.

In addition to Beaver's victory, Williams and Ethan Varvelo (Sr., Channelview, Texas, Engineering Technology) headlined the remaining distance runners with second-place finishes.  Williams did so in the 800-meter run in 1:59.02, while Varvelo collected the silver in the one-mile run in a time of 4:39.67.

Miller followed closely behind Beaver in the 3,000 (8:56.72), while Ruben Perez-Rodriguez (Sr., San Antonio, Texas, Wellness and Recreation) took eighth (9:32.55).

Gavin Huff (Fr., Mascoutah, Ill.) had a top-10 showing in the 800, placing eighth in 2:03.83, while Carson Springer (So., Grimes, Iowa, Business Management) placed sixth in the 5,000-meter run in 16:16.12.

In addition to Polite's sprinting marks, he was also fourth in the high jump at 5-9.75, while Kwabena Banahene (So., Fontana, Calif., Undecided) finished one spot ahead of Polite with the same mark.

Primes Brock (Fr., Shreveport, La., Civil Engineering) had the best throw for William Penn, placing third in the shot put at 46-2.75.  He was also 15th in the weight throw (46-1.25).

Xzavion West (Jr., Guthrie, Ky., Undecided) garnered two top-six tosses, ending up fifth in the weight throw (54-8.75) and sixth in the shot put (44-8.75).

Also the owner of two top-10 performances, Nick Marshall (Jr., Glenpool, Okla., Human Services) was seventh in the weight throw at 52-10 and ninth in the shot put at 43-10.5.

Rylee Scott (Jr., Maxwell, Iowa, Exercise Science) finished 12th in the shot put (41-0.5), and Fredrick Kolla Nquimdo (So., Wheaton, Md., Secondary Education) was 18th in the weight throw (43-11.25).

"For the men to hit some standards while finishing up some heavy weeks of training, it really shows how much talent we have within our program," Head Coach Victoria Vinokur said.  "Things that people do not see in the results are that our athletes are fine-tuning and working on a lot of small things to improve in every event.  Our athletes are really paying attention to detail which is showing in their performances."

Next Up: William Penn travels to Maryville, Mo. next Friday and Saturday to compete in the Northwest Missouri State Bearcat Open.