Westmont Track and Field hosted the Sunshine Indoor Open on Saturday involving 363 entrants in 38 events from seven schools and several track organizations.
Sophomore Elysia Hodges established a new Westmont record in the 600 meters, winning the race in a time of 1:33.70. Hodges? time earned an automatic qualification into the NAIA Indoor National Championships that will be held in Geneva, Ohio beginning February 28. The performance broke a nearly 11-year-old record held by Rebecca Schwanda of 1:36.31.
Westmont’s Shane Rowan competes in the triple jump on Saturday
Kristen Holding won the indoor pentathlon with 3,173 points, also establishing a new Westmont record. Her mark exceeds the minimum requirement for indoor national championship qualification by 473 points. Only the top-16 pentathletes from across the nation are invited to participate in the championship, however, Holding?s mark is expected to be enough to earn her a spot at nationals.
Westmont women?s 4 x 800 meter race of Alexandria Adams, Ali Johnson, Piper Bain and Corinne Cherne claimed second with a time of 9:25.25, beating the automatic qualification mark by more than 20 seconds. The 4 x 400 meter team of Hodges, Laurel Stormans, Amanda Chevalier and Kaylin Koopmans also finished second, completing the race in an automatic qualification mark of 3:56.51.
Also earning an automatic qualification into the national championship was Westmont?s women?s distance medley team of Jordan McCall, Koopmans, Nealon and Jessica Meyers. The Warrior quartet completed the race in a time of 12:27.77, besting the qualification time by just less than 10 seconds.
The women?s and men?s distance medley was competed in the same race with Westmont?s two teams the only entrants. The men?s team of Evan Bradford, Quincy Braxton, Matt Shiney and Jake Jeanson posted a time of 10:19.41, to beat the standard of 10:20.20.
Additional Westmont winners included Chevalier in the women?s 200 meters (26.11), Christian Hatchett in the men?s 400 meters (49.47), Benjamin McCollum in the heptathlon (2,472 points) and the men?s 4 x 400 meter team (3:22.03).
