KEARNEY, Neb. -- April 3, 2022 -- Chadron State College track and field athletes placed among the top three in their events a dozen times Saturday the Central Nebraska Challenge in Kearney. The competition was stiff with at least a dozen teams from four states entered.

"It was really good meet for us," Coach Riley Northrup said. "We had a lot of personal best marks, some provisional nationally qualifying marks and did well against tough competition."

The Eagles earned two first in the jumps.  Morgan Fawver of McCook helped open the action by winning the men's long jump with a mark of 24 feet, one inch.  Near the end of the day, Jourdaine Cerenil of Pine Bluffs, Wyo., won the women's high jump at 5-7.

Fawver also placed second in the 100 meters in 10.70 seconds.  The race had 25 entries.      

Besides Fawver, other CSC men also did well in the horizontal jumps. Emory Yoosook of Casper, Wyo., was third (22-7 ¾) and Ismael DePaulitte of Pine Bluffs, Wyo., was fourth (22-7) in the long jump, while Derrick Nwagwu of Aurora, Colo., was second (48-0), Brock Voth of Berthoud, Colo., was third (47-11 ¾) and Joss Linse of Plattsmouth, Neb., was fourth (46-4 ¼) in the triple jump.

Another superb performance was posted by Shane Collins of Bison, S.D. He was the runner-up in the hammer throw with a fling of 195-7. That's 2 feet, 7 inches better than his previous best of 193 feet even that won first place at the meet at Black Hills State the previous Saturday. It also is only 14 inches shy of the Chadron State record that teammate Daniel Reynolds of Granby, Colo., set last Saturday.

Reynolds didn't fare as well at Kearney. He fouled on all three of his preliminaries throws, but the season is still young and he'll have more chances to see if he can stay ahead of Collins. 

"It's neat to have two really exceptional hammer throwers on the team at the same time," Northrup noted. "Both were among the top five in Division II in the nation entering this weekend."

The Eagles also had a highlight in the javelin, where Dylan Soule of Polk, Neb., finished third with a fling of 190-7, his career-best by 17 feet, 7 inches.  Teammate Quest Savery of Miles City., Mont., was sixth at 183-3 after sailing the spear 190-8 in the season-opening meet last week.

The Chadron State men placed second in both relays at the Central States Challenge.  The 4x100 quartet had a provisional qualifying time of 41.08 seconds and the 4x400 foursome wasn't far off that goal with a 3:18.01 clocking. 

Osvaldo Cano of Oskhosh and Quincy Efeturi, a native of Nigeria who enrolled at CSC last fall, ran on both relays, while Fawver and Brodie Roden of Riverton, Wyo., were members of the 4x100 team and Osiel Cano, Osvaldo's twin, and Greg Logsdon of Yoder, Wyo., filled out the 4x400 entry. 

Besides Cerenil's victory in the high jump, the CSC women got two excellent performances from Carlie Collier of Dunning, Neb., in the sprints.  She placed third in both the 200 and 400 meters with career-best times of 24.95 and 57.85 seconds. Both marks are seventh all-time on the Chadron State sprints lists. 

There were 35 contestants in the 200 and 22 in the 400.

The Eagles plan to enter the meet at South Dakota Mines in Rapid City next Saturday.