Cedarville, OH - The Grace Christian University Track & Field program had six individuals representing the Tigers at this past weekend's NCCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships, hosted at Cedarville University. Of the 24 schools represented at Nationals, the Grace men's team placed 18th overall, 2nd among NCCAA D2 schools, and saw numerous new personal bests and a couple of new school records in the process. For the men's team, it was one of the best results in program history at indoor nationals.  

Coach Verwey was thrilled with the way the Tigers competed and complemented both the leadership of the upperclassmen as well as the coachability and drive of the underclassmen on the team. "We had a team meeting about an hour and half before the first event and reflected on our core values and what that looks like in competition," according to Coach Verwey. "My basic message was that we were going to step into that fieldhouse to take places away from our competition with the mindset that we earned the right to win every flight, heat, and event." The Tiger athletes clearly responded to this message throughout the two-day meet.

Meet Highlights: 

• Freshman Kaylee Morris (Mancelona, MI) bolted to a new personal best time in the 60m dash, placing her in a tie for the 2nd fastest time in school history (with Lydia Peters, 2020).

• Senior Kent Herring (Evart, MI) had his best indoor pentathlon performance ever, placing 8th in the country with 3,248 points, and setting a new school record in the event. Herring set new personal records in the 60m dash (7.73 sec.), long jump (5.52m), shot put (8.82m), and pole vault (2.70m). He also tied his best time ever in the 60m hurdles (10.86 sec.). He capped off the heptathlon competition with a photo finish in the 1k Run versus Bethel's Chris Korthuis, edging him at the line for a 4th place overall finish (3:03.76). Herring had a busy weekend, as in addition to the 7 events of the heptathlon, he was also a key member of Grace's 4 x 200m and 4 x 400m relays.

• The men's 4 x 400m relay team of Herring, Austin Engel, Jude Vargo, and Ian Hinkle ran a gutsy race and unexpectedly scored points for the Tigers by finishing 8th in the nation for the event (4:03.63).

• School history was made as the Tigers first ever 4 x 200m relay took to the track and finished 11th overall. The team of Engel, Herring, Vargo, and Aidan Gansert finished in a time of 1:45.36.

• Sophomore Aidan Gansert (Fort Wayne, IN) had a strong showing in shot put, with a best toss of 11.74m and freshman Austin Engel (Spring Lake, MI) had a solid leap in long jump at 5.81m.

The track & field squads will now begin to prepare for their outdoor season, although they will have one more indoor meet on February 21 at GVSU to stay competitively sharp before their first outdoor competition on March 21 at Indiana Wesleyan. The Tigers are hopeful to not only stay healthy and get stronger but also hope to regain some of their athletes who were nursing injuries or resting through the indoor season in time for their first outdoor meet of the year.