The men’s outdoor track and field season is well underway. With a combination of active participation in four meets, the team will head into the Crossroads League Conference Championships with lifetime bests and improving confidence.
Starting their season at the Indiana Wesleyan University Polar Bear Meet, the team started strong with several top ten finishes and a B-Standard to qualify for the NAIA National Championship.
Junior Joel Mumaw took second place in the 1500m with a time of 4:00.75, with junior Jared Stayte coming in sixth place finish in the same event with a 4:06.20. Competing in the 5k, junior Ryan Hanak placed second with a time of 14.57.38 followed by junior Luke Harber in 5th with a time of 15:09.16.
On the sprints side, senior Brayden Bixler led the field with a first-place finish of 54.64 in the 400m hurdles. Among the top ten finishers, he was followed by freshman Spencer Stout in 9th place with a time of 58.01. Stout also placed 6th overall in the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.64 seconds.
Multi-time All-American Junior Josh Forbes’s first-place height in the pole jump of 4.80m gained him a B-Standard for the NAIA National Championships. In High Jump, Sophomore Lyndon Miller placed seventh with a height of 6’ 1.25” and Carter Newman placed 10th in the Long Jump with a leap of 20’ 5.75.”
Over spring break week, the team split to send runners to the Washington Distance Carnival in Saint Louis, Missouri and the Emory Thrills in the Hills meet in Atlanta, Georgia.
At Washington, Harber and Hanak competed at a longer distance, running times of 31:12.68 and 32:01.95 in the 10k. Harber’s time was the top outdoor time in the program since 2022. Performances in the 5k from Mumaw, Stayte, and sophomore Jordan Burden put them in the top 105 runners of the massive 346-runner field, with Mumaw leading the team with a time of 15.11.62 to place 81st.
In Atlanta, highlights from the meet again included Stout making a top-ten performance in the 400m hurdles with a time of 56.91 seconds. In the 200m, freshman Wade Jones posted a 22.06 for the Trojans, placing 16th overall.
A 4x100m team of Jones, Newman, freshman Quintauris Jones, and Stout placed 7th overall. On the field, juniors Max Lambert and Seth Gormley placed 20th and 27th for the discus throw.
With a cancellation of the Huntsville Family Invite on April 5th due to inclement weather, the next meet at the Little State Championships was met with record times and several PR’s, where Taylor placed 7th out of 15 teams.
The Friday-to-Saturday meet was met with big scoring and personal bests from 5k runners. Leading the pack with a career-best and a victory, Hanak gained a B-Standard with an astounding 14:35.03. Harber followed right behind with another personal best of 14:40.91. The 5k alone brought the team 20 points, with additional scoring from Burden placing 7th.
Overall, head track and field coach Derek Gay said everyone who competed looked sharp and technical during the Little State meet. He said the 5k lights-out performance was something the coaching staff has been looking forward to.
“We have been looking forward to what that group of distance guys are capable of for a while, and now they are doing those things,” he said. “And it has been fun to watch.”
With a younger sprinting team, he said it has been good to watch them grow during the season. Through gaining experience, he said that they have amazing potential for future seasons.
“I think it is kind of fun in two different ways,” he said. “We have had a group that we have been looking forward to developing, and a group that we’re looking forward to developing.”
Another first-place finish came from Stayte’s 3000m steeplechase performance with a time of 9:35.96. Mumaw again placed second in the 1500m, improving his time to 3.54.39.
Stout and Bixler once again had amazing days with fourth-place finishes for each in the 100m Hurdles and the 400m Hurdles, respectively. Senior Bradley Braxton had leading times for the team in both the 400m and the 200m, and was a part of the 4x400m team alongside Junior Lexin Willis, Newman, and Bixler.
Bixler has been a National Qualifier in the 400m Hurdles and holds the top two times for the team on the season in the 400m hurdles and the top time for the men’s team in the 100m. As he is finishing out his last outdoor season, Bixler said that he was looking ahead to the future meets, but also the time with his teammates.
“I’m looking forward to conference (The Crossroads League Championships) and continuing to spend time with the team,” he said. “So many memories when you look back, really are not even the PR’s, even though that is kind of why you do what you do, but it is continuing to grow with the team.
He was very encouraging of the freshman and sophomore hurdlers and the performances that they have been putting out, and said he was excited to continue making memories during the season.
The Trojans will fight for the Crossroads League title at the Championship on May 1-2 at Indiana Wesleyan University.
