Yanira Deana Paninka, Olivia Mathis, Isaac Sytsma, and Alexandra Clarke pose together to Celebrate Their All-American Honors SXU Athletics
The Cougars gave it their all and put in the effort to finish strong at the NAIA Indoor National Championship. The women’s track squad tied for 28th place out of the 60 teams competing. The men’s track squad placed in a three-way tie at 53 out of the 66 teams that competed at Nationals last weekend.
NAIA Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Championships T-28th of 60- 8 points
The Saint Xavier University (SXU) women’s track squad selected only six female athletes to represent SXU at the Indoor Nationals. The athletes being, senior Kristin Booker, senior Lexi Clarke, senior Olivia Mathis, junior Alanna Rodriguez, sophomore Amaya Rique, and junior Yanira Deana Paninka.
The women’s squad came and dominated at the Indoor Nationals as three members from the squad earned NAIA All-American honors.
One of them was Paninka, who earned the honors by placing seventh in the 600m finals. Paninka finished with a time of 1:35.11
Mathis also came away with NAIA All-American honors as she placed fourth overall in the 800m, with a time of 2:15.65
Clarke is the third and final member of the SXU women’s squad to come home with All-American honors, Clarke finished the 800m with a time of 2:20.65.
Mathis and Clarke repeated as NAIA All-Americans and the girls earned a total of eight points for the Cougars.
Paninka also set a program record in the preliminaries of the 600m, finishing at a time of 1:34.72 which led her to qualify for finals.
During the prelims of the 800m, Mathis set a new PR as she ran the second-fastest mark in SXU history. Qualifying with the quickest time of 2:14.55.
Clarke clutched up and took the last spot in the prelims by finishing with a time of 2:15.58.
Rodriguez competed in the 3000m Race Walk, she finished with a time of 17:41.30 which is her fastest time this season. Rodriguez finished 13th overall.
The 4×800 Relay Team consisted of Clarke, Paninka, Booker, and Mathis. The team also had an alternate teammate in Rique. The girls established a new school record in the prelims as they got a time of 9:24.73.
NAIA Men’s Indoor Track & Field National Championships T-53rd of 66- 4 points
SXU track squad selected only nine male athletes to represent SXU at the Indoor Nationals, and those athletes were, senior Lendale Franklin, Senior Luke Snedden, senior Ayobami Arokoyo, junior Rohindeep Bhattal, senior Ronnie Foster, seniorJonathan Jacobo, sophomore Myles Money, junior Charlie Zufan, and senior Isaac Sytsma.
The star that shined brightest this weekend was senior distance runner Isaac Sytsma. Sytsma took part in the 1000m and dominated, placing fifth in the finals with a time of 2:26.76. This earned Sytsma NAIA All-American honors for Saint Xavier.
During the preliminaries for the 1000m, Sytsma broke his own school record when he posted a time of 2:26.26 which is the second-fastest qualifying time. Sytsma is the first Cougar athlete since Mario Scarcelli to earn NAIA Indoor All-American honors.
Some of the Day One highlights consisted of Franklin recording a time of 8.10 seconds in the 60m Hurdles preliminaries. This time tied for his second-fastest time in his career.
The Distance Medley Relay Team that consists of Bhattal, Zufan, Jacobo, and alternates of Money and Snedden, put the work in and established a new school record with a time of 10:05.99.
Day Two of Nationals had some decent highlights with Foster competing in the Long Jump. Foster recorded a distance of 6.65m, which had him finish at 17th out of the 21 jumpers.
Arokoyo took part in Shot Put but unfortunately wasn’t able to make anything out of his three attempts.
With the Indoor portion of the Cougar’s season coming to an end, both squads will pick things back up and resume their season for the Outdoor portion. Look out for their meets later this month.