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Indianapolis, IN — With frigid temperatures and sleet canceling the last event of Saturday’s 102nd annual Little State Championships at the Indiana-University Purdue-University of Indianapolis Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium, the Goshen College men’s track and field team found the going difficult, registering just one team point and finishing 20th in one of the nation’s oldest collegiate track meets.
A total of 20 Indiana institutions comprised the annual event, with all NCAA Division II, III and NAIA programs eligible to participate. With such a strong showing of small colleges — and conditions that got considerably worse as the weekend progressed — Goshen found scoring tedious, registering its lowest point total in the last seven years.
“Our men’s team had a harder time getting on the scoreboard (than our women’s team – click here for related article) but the effort was certainly there,” said Rick Clark, Goshen head coach. “After comfortable weather on Friday, conditions deteriorated on Saturday to the point that the men’s hammer throw was cancelled late Saturday afternoon. It was a rough meet to score well in, but we did have a few very positive performances.”
Leading the way through a steady sleet on Saturday was sophomore Brent Handfield, whose eighth-place finish in the triple jump equated to Goshen’s only scoring performane of the two-day event. Handfield registered a distance of 39 feet, 9 and ¼ inches in that event, while the sophomore also claimed a personal-best 20 feet, 9 and ¼ performance in the long jump, good for a 12th-place finish.
“Brent has been a very steady athlete for us, and this weekend was no different,” Clark said. “Even though he scored our point in the triple, it was very good to see him notch a personal best in the long jump.”
While no other Leaf was able to register team tallies, Clark’s squad did put forth a number of personal-best efforts. Junior Jake Gillette came just one place away from scoring in the 10,000-meter run, finishing ninth with a career-best time of 32:43.40. Freshman Tyler Keller also put forth a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing 18th overall in a time of :59.77. Junior Randy Keener and freshman John Tamirat each achieved career bests in the 800-meter run, finishing with clips of 2:03.68 and 2:06.23, respectively. In the field, junior Louis Robledo finished 11th in the pole vault with a personal-best clearance of 13 feet even.
The University of Indianapolis claimed its fourth consecutive Little State Championship, finishing first in the team competition with 101 points. For a complete list of team and individual performances and results, click here.
Goshen will next return to intercollegiate competition on Saturday, when the team travels to Manchester College for the annual Spartan Invite.
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Sophomore Brent Handfield