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Juanita Webster-Freeman Leads Indiana Tech to NAIA Title, Breaks Pentathlon Record

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DyeStat.com   Mar 5th 2023, 2:28am
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Indiana Tech's Depth Overcomes Five Wins By Huntington (Ind.) Freshman Addy Wiley To Maintain NAIA Title

By David Woods for DyeStat

Juanita Webster-Freeman is a veritable one-woman track and field team. She did her part, but so did her teammates at Indiana Tech, which won a third successive NAIA Indoor championship Saturday at Brookings, S.D.

Webster-Freeman set an NAIA record in the pentathlon and scored in four other events for 31 team points. Indiana Tech finished with 85.

Coach Doug Edgar said 20 of Indiana Tech’s 23 entries earned All-America status.

“Lots of women sacrificed personal performance to score more points for the team,” he posted on Twitter.

Huntington (Ind.) was second with 64 points, 42.5 from an unprecedented distance quintuple by freshman Addy Wiley. She won the 600 meters, 800, mile and 3,000, and she anchored the Foresters to victory in the distance medley relay.

Huntington was bidding for a second championship in four years. A plaintiff in a civil lawsuit filed against Huntington has stated the NAIA should strip the Foresters of their 2020 title, alleging doping violations.

William Carey (Miss.), runner-up the previous three years, was third with 58. Life (Ga.) was fourth with 50.

The NAIA championship was the 16th for Indiana Tech in men’s and women’s track and field, all since 2013.

Webster-Freeman scored 4,258 points in Thursday’s pentathlon. She broke the NAIA record of 4,194 set by Oklahoma Baptist’s Akela Jones in 2014.

“All these five events, I’ve wanted to just be calm and collected and just feel the energy of nationals,” she said.

In other events, she was third in the 60-meter hurdles (8.48) and shot put (46-10.25/14.28m), fourth in the high jump (5-7/1.70m) and tied for fourth in the long jump (18-8.50/5.70m). Webster-Freeman was defending champion in the high jump.

“I honestly felt like myself again,” she said.

Webster-Freeman, 26, of Redlands, Calif., is a former California junior college champion and was eighth in the heptathlon at the 2021 Olympic Trials. She has become an inspirational figure, elaborating publicly about her Asperger’s diagnosis.

The 19-year-old Wiley has been on an elite stage, too. She set a national high school record for 1,600 meters, finished fifth in the 1,500 at the World Under-20 Championships and was fourth in the 1,500 two weeks ago at the USATF Indoor Championships.

In a four-hour span, Wiley’s wins, in order, were: mile, 4:48.04; 600, 1:29.47 (breaking her own NAIA record of 1:29.77); 800, 2:10.93; 3,000, 9:47.57, and DMR, 11:46.74.

Including prelims, she ran nearly 51 laps of the 300-meter track, or 9.5 miles.

“I didn’t follow the strategy I had originally planned on a few of them,” Wiley said. “But I just go with the flow and make it work. I love racing, so that’s what I came here to do.”

Wiley scored 42.5 points. The only other woman to win four individual events in one nationals was Jones: 60 hurdles, high jump, long jump and pentathlon in 2014. Jones was second in the 60 meters and scored 48 points.

Elsewhere, Life’s Talayla Davis won a 60/200 sprint double in 7.28 and 23.67.

Indiana Tech’s Lisa Voyles won the 1,000 for a third time, clocking 2:50.52, and was third in the mile in a school record of 4:50.23.

Southeastern clinches first title in 4x400 relay

Heading into the 4x400 relay, five of the top six teams in men’s scoring had entries in the climactic event and a mathematical chance to secure the championship.

Southeastern (Fla.) ended the drama, winning the relay and its first team title. Southeastern scored 45 points to 40 for runner-up Life. Dordt (Iowa) was third with 38.6 and Indiana Wesleyan fourth with 37.

Joseph Taylor anchored Southeastern’s 4x400 to victory in 3:10.46 after taking the 400 meters in 46.80.

Ghanaian sprinter Saminu Abdul-Rasheed won the 60 in 6.63, breaking the meet record of 6.65 set by Zachaeus Beard of Langston (Okla.) last year. Donte Sol of Multnomah (Ore) was second in 6.65, equaling the previous mark.

Life’s William Jones was a double winner in long jump (24-7.75/7.51m) and triple jump (52-1.75/15.89m). Jacob Ulrich, also of Life, won the 600 in 1:16.34 over Huntington’s Dylan Felger, who set a meet record of 1:16.12 last year.

Midland (Neb.) shot putter Dylan Kucera won a fourth title with a distance of 62-10.75/19.17m. He is the fourth athlete to complete a four-year sweep of an event at the NAIA meet.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.



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