GULF SHORES, Ala.— The Montreat track & field teams began action at the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships on Wednesday, with four different athletes participating across a plethora of events for the Cavaliers.
Hank Yelton started things off with five events in the decathlon. The Morganton, N.C. native, who currently sits 14
th out of 17 athletes following first-day results, recorded 3,177 total points on Wednesday.
Yelton began the day with a ninth-place showing in the 100m dash to collect 728 points with his time of 11.62 seconds. In the long jump, he added 632 points following a jump of 6.21m before tallying 452 points in the shot put (9.44m). Yelton closed out his afternoon with a 1.77m result in the high jump (13
th, 602 points) and a time of 51.14 in the 400m dash, good enough for 763 points and third place in the event.
In the women's 1,500m prelims,
Mahaley Cronk just missed qualification for the finals. With her time of 4:47.39, Cronk, who ran in the faster of the two heats, ended with the 15
th-fastest combined time and the seventh-quickest of her heat, just three spots from making the finals.
On the men's side of the 1,500 prelims,
Ruchen Blaauw and
Dylan Branch each automatically qualified for the finals by notching top-4 finishes in their heat. Branch and Blaauw crossed third and fourth, respectively, in their run to advance to Friday's round. The duo both registered a 3:56.95 time to form the 10
th and 11
th qualifiers out of 12.
Caleb Silver and
Nathan Stamey were supposed to join Blaauw and Branch for the Cavs' final event of the day, the 4x800m relay prelims; however, lightning in the area caused events to be pushed to tomorrow.
Events continue tomorrow as the Cavaliers will compete in 5 or 6 events depending on the relay team's time in the prelims, including 3 or 4 finals, beginning at 11:00 a.m.
