Austin, Moore set NAIA National 'A' Standards in discus (Austin), shot put (Moore); Bears finish fourth at Yellow Jacket Collegiate Open
To say that Saturday was a special day for Shawnee State's two main throwing standouts in Alan Austin and Justin Moore would be an understatement.
In the discus throw, Austin and Moore finished 1-2 in a 45-thrower field that saw Austin obtain his first career NAIA National 'A' Standard toss in the discus, while Moore added in his own NAIA National 'A' Standard in the shot put to officially post A standard marks in both the indoor and outdoor track seasons in the event by winning the 30-thrower shot put field by nearly four full feet.
Their efforts, however, were only part of an exciting meet from start to finish for the Bears, who also nabbed an individual victory from Aiden Kammler in a 53-runner 1,500 meter run field and got a big performance from its men's 4-by-400 meter relay unit as Donn'yae Ferguson, Maddox Fox, Dylan French, Eugene Johnson and Aidan Judd as the quintet combined to edge Rio Grande by just under seven-tenths of a second in the 4-by-400 to clinch a fourth place finish for the men's outdoor track and field program at the Yellow Jacket Collegiate Open Saturday at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.
With 70 points, Shawnee State bettered Rio Grande's 65 to notch the top overall finish of any River States Conference unit at the event. The Bears also bettered NCAA Division I Bellarmine and Wright State, NCAA Division II Wayne State (Mich.) and Ohio Dominican and NCAA Division III Spalding (Ky.) on points.
Austin, who posted a 161-foot, five-inch throw in the discus, and Moore, who launched a 157-foot, five-inch throw, dominated the proceedings. Austin's throw, in addition to being an NAIA National 'A' Standard toss, sits 10th overall in the entire NAIA in the event, and tops among all freshmen competitors, while Moore's output sits 13th in the NAIA and second among all freshmen talents who have participated in the discus throw.
Moore then went on to post a dominating effort in the shot put -- posting a 52-foot, two-and-a-half-inch throw to reach a NAIA National 'A' Standard on the outdoor side of the track and field realm in the event. Moore's mark is good for 12th in the entire NAIA, and is also second among all freshmen throwers in the country. Moore capped off the day by finishing 14th in the hammer throw with a 132 foot, one inch toss.
In the 1,500 meter run, Kammler blitzed his way to yet another victory, notching the only time under four minutes en route to another terrific performance. No other runner finished above a 4:02.20 and only three runners outside of Kammler finished below a 4:05. The standout senior then went on to add a sixth-place showing out of 43 individuals in the 800 meter run with his 1:59.62 -- and was one of only seven participants to clock under two minutes in that event.
Capping off the individual victories, on the men's side, was the 4-by-400 meter relay unit of Ferguson, Fox, French, Johnson and Judd, who posted a 3:38.29 to outlast Rio Grande's 3:38.88 in a tight and thrilling race between the two units.
Standout brothers Trevor and Kaiden Lanoy added in impressive times of 10:00.31 and 10:17.34 to finish fifth and eighth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, while Maddox Fox posted a sixth place finish in the men's 400 meter hurdles (1:01.46) to round out the scoring performances for the Bears.
Additional
Additional performances by the Shawnee State men's outdoor track and field program were as follows:
1,500 meter run: Isaiah Lanoy, 19th, 4:17.74; Philip Evory, 21st, 4:19.22; Logan Boggs, 34th, 4:34.76; Jacob Naumovski, 39th, 4:38.78; Luke Butler, 43rd, 4:45.61
400 meter dash: Eugene Johnson, 18th, 54.921; Donn'Yae Ferguson, 19th, 54.927
800 meter run: Aidan Judd, 15th, 2:05.31; Philip Evory, 20th, 2:07.67; Isaiah Lanoy, 26th, 2:11.45; Jacob Naumovski, 34th, 2:21.39; Luke Butler, 38th, 2:26.30
5,000 meter run: Jared Flowers, 32nd, 18:55.08
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