Hawks' top 2 streak at nationals ends

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MARION, Ind. — The Dickinson State men’s track and field team’s streak of finishing in the top two places at the NAIA national championships ended Saturday.

The Blue Hawks finished 21st overall with 15 team points. They had placed in the top two every year since 2003, winning titles in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Yet, DSU coach Pete Stanton said he was pleased with the team’s overall performance.

“You do as well as you’re capable of doing and I really felt we did that,” Stanton said. “We put together a very strong meet on the men’s side. We’re pleased.”

The Blue Hawks ended with six NAIA All-America selections.

“That’s a big thing for us,” Stanton said.

Senior Kurt McCormack ended his career with a fourth-place finish in the triple jump. He had a season-best leap of 49 feet, 6½ inches.

Senior Johnny Emtman had a leap of 47-1½ to take 18th and freshman Brady Sundheim leapt 46-8¾ to finish 20th.

The 400-meter relay team of Jermaine Christie, Michael Sands, Josh Neumiller and Cordero Bonamy finished fifth with a time of 41.01 seconds.

Freshman John Paul Williams had a sixth-place finish in the pole vault, leaping a personal-best 16-0¾ inch.

“He put together a great day,” Stanton said.

Freshman Nathan Magstadt took eighth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 53.08 seconds.

On the women’s side, freshman Hailey Schaper barely missed NAIA All-America status in the high jump.

She had a leap of 5 feet, 5 inches, which tied for seventh. She missed sixth place, the All-America cutoff, on attempts.

Schaper finished her first season with the school record in the high jump.

“We couldn’t be anymore please with her,” Stanton said.

Senior Tina Marie Soto finished the marathon with a time of 3:26.52.80, which qualified her for the Boston Marathon.

Junior Vanessa Esquival ran a time of 3:36:56.30. Soto was 37th. Esquival was 46th. Sixty-one runners started the race and 54 finished.

Though DSU will lose a large senior class, to have three freshman finish in the finals made Stanton happy about the team’s future.

“We also feel that we’ve got a good future with a really good freshman class,” Stanton said. “We think our freshmen are going to do some really nice things in the next few years. We’re excited for the future as well.”

Tags: track and field, blue hawks, sports, naia, updates