The First of Many More

David Martin in the lead Source: Nate Porter Facebook

Written and media by Mitchell Hooten.


Ben Perry throwing the weight. Source: Nate Porter Facebook

Track season is back in full swing at Greenville University, with the first meet of the year for the Men and Women’s Greenville Track and Field Team. This was held Saturday, Dec. 2nd at the Titan’s First Chance Meet at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. This meet is held every year the first weekend of December and is not just a meet that every track athlete gets to compete in. This meet is a reward meet for all the track athletes that have been training the whole entire fall and deserve to compete.

The performance put on by the Men and Women’s Track Team two weekends ago was a very promising outlook on what should be an interesting indoor Track and Field season. The top performances from the weekend were spread out among the events, with many athletes securing third-place finishes. Ben Perry secured third place in the weight throw and almost beat his Personal Record in the event. Other third-place finishers on the men’s side included  David Martin in the 60-meter hurdles and the 4×400 relay team, which includes Matt Hughes, Tyler Kimes, Jackson Pierce, and Alex Finke. This concludes for the men. For the women, the top placer was Jessica Staley, who finished fourth place in the 300-meter dash. These performances were a few of many that also qualified for the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Indoor Track and Field Championship.

Jessica Staley running her race.
Source: Nate Porter Facebook

Qualifying for Indoor Christian Nationals at the very first meet of the year is a huge weight off a Greenville track athlete’s shoulders. Doing this allows the athlete to focus on improving their qualifying mark instead of going into every meet thinking they have to jump, run, or throw a certain amount. This also allows the athletes to say that they were able to qualify for a national championship. For a Division 3 Track and Field athlete, this is not a common thing that is said unless you are one of the best in the nation. But for the athletes at Greenville, qualifying for nationals is a very common thing since Greenville is a Christian University and competes in NCCAA.

Two athletes with very good performances this past weekend were Ben Perry and David Martin. In having their great performances, they both were able to qualify for Indoor Christian Nationals, and they are both in the top five in the ranking for nationals. Overall Perry said, “I was really happy with this performance this last week; to be throwing this close to my previous personal record this early in the season is really exciting. I’m looking forward to what this season may hold, and I hope this means I’m on the right track to reach my goals for this season.”

While Martin said, “I was very excited to hear I made the finals; however, I didn’t realize the race was starting. I had to rush to get my number and get my blocks set up; with those situations you kinda just have to do it. So I just went and did my best which led to a Personal Record, and I think it was a great start to the season.” As you can tell, these two fantastic athletes were happy with their performances and hope to have a great season.

This is a video of Ben Perry throwing the weight throw from two weekends ago.

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