DSU men Willis, Magstadt earn All-America honors at NAIA national championships

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MARION, Ind. — The Dickinson State men’s track and field team had two athletes capture All-America honors Friday at the NAIA national championships.

Senior Trevor Willis earned his second career All-America placing in the decathlon, finishing fourth with 6,661 points.

He capped Day 2 of the event by finishing fourth in the mile run (4 minutes, 38.17 seconds). Willis was also eighth in the pole vault (13 feet, 3½ inches), 10th in the discus (115-8), 10th in the javelin (155-0) and 13th in the 110 hurdles (16.18 seconds).

Willis bounced back from trouble in what is typically his best event, the pole vault, after snapping his pole early in the day.

“He battled,” DSU head coach Pete Stanton said. “He snapped his pole. You could hear the pop all the way across the stadium. He had to jump on a different pole. That sums him up. He’s just a competitor. Real disciplined, real tough."

Sophomore Nathan Magstadt picked up an All-America finish in the 110-meter hurdles, placing fourth with a time of 14.46 seconds. The Dickinson High School graduate ran a time of 14.4 seconds to finish fifth in the semifinals.

Magstadt also qualified for the finals of the 400 hurdles, which run Saturday, with a fourth-place time of personal-record time of 52.47 seconds.

“For Nathan, it was a tremendous day,” Stanton said. “The experience that he’s gotten over the last couple years finally came together today.”

On the women’s side, Brittany Young took fourth in the 800-meter preliminaries with a time of 2:14.9. She was 2.73 seconds off the time of semifinal winner Hannah Helker of Oklahoma Baptist.

Jennifer Hartman had a leap of 36-5½ in the women’s triple jump, but did not make the finals.

Brianny Williams was 11th in the women’s 100 hurdles. Her time of 14.74 seconds missed qualifying for Saturday’s finals.

Andrew Knebel went 6-6 and lost out in the semifinal heat of the men’s high jump.

DSU has several competitors going Saturday. Hartman and Hailey Schaper compete in the women’s high jump, Brady Sundheim is in the men’s triple jump and Johnpaul Williams goes in the pole vault.

Tags: track and field, blue hawks, dsu blue hawks, nathan magstadt, trevor willis, sports, naia, updates