ELSAH, IL – As they do every year, Principia College hosted the SLIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday in the Crafton Athletic Center. This year was the first time the meet was split into two days to spread out the timing of the field events.
Despite a couple key contributors held out due to nagging injuries, the Principia men and women had a solid showing, each finishing with exactly 62 points. The men tied for fourth overall while the women finished in fifth.
Individually, the Panthers won 14 medals and had conference champions in 4 different events. Junior sprinter
Amarachi Ejimadu had a meet to remember as she won both the 60 meter dash (7.84) and the 200 meter dash (26.97) with indoor personal bests and anchored the women's 4x400 meter relay team to a second place finish. Ejimadu was then chosen as the SLIAC Women's Indoor Track Athlete of the Year at the end of the meet.
The other two individual champions for Principia were junior
Kiara Smith in the women's high jump and senior
Zach Proctor in the men's 3000 meters. Both marked the first SLIAC event championships in their careers. Proctor's triumph was particularly special as he had already run both the mile leg of the DMR and the open mile before dropping a huge personal record in the 3000m of 9:09.73 to win by over 6 seconds in a strong field. The time also qualifies him by less than a second for the WashU Distance Carnival later in March, which was a big goal for him this season.
Elsewhere, bronze medals went to
Amos Ostler in the men's 800m (2:04.36),
Danielle Vargas in the women's 800m (2:33.42),
Sophia Green in the women's mile (5:37.91),
MiKing Ettress in the men's long jump (6.60m),
Marc-Quan Daniels in the men's shot put (13.12m),
Mark Fisher in the men's weight throw (13.47m), and the men's 4x400m relay team of Ostler, Ettress,
Eziuche Ejimadu, and
Chris Clark. Silver medals also went to Daniels in the men's weight throw (13.75m), Green in the women's 3000m (11:33.41), and the women's 4x400m relay team of Ejimadu, Smith, Vargas, and
Sarah Fakorede.
Congrats to all those who medaled and/or achieved personal records at the meet!
FULL RESULTS
A few members of the Panther squad will head to Centre College in Kentucky next weekend for one last indoor meet before the team transitions to an exciting outdoor season ahead.
