GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Fire recorded a strong second day against the country's best. Southeastern University saw seven Fire athletes earn All-American honors over seven different events at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships.
Ashlyn Poulin and Irmiris Mendez led the Fire contingent with a third place and three preliminary qualifying top-eight placings of the SEU All-Americans. Poulin was only off her Alachua County Sports and Events Center facility record she set this spring by just over three seconds, as she crossed the finish line in 14:27.52 for third place in the 3000-meter race walk. Her 14:23.58 was the facility record from a few weeks ago, but both of the top two finishers – Izabelle Trefts of Evergreen State and Alexa Governor from the University of the Cumberlands – set a new facility record in 13:53.46 and 14:20.98.
Mendez claimed guaranteed All-America status in each of the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, and 200-meter dash events. The Fire runner ran her way to sixth in the 60-meter dash in 7.510 seconds, while she qualified eighth in both the 60-meter hurdles (8.58) and 200-meter dash (24.78).
In the team standings, the SEU women maintain sixth place with 11 points in the 34-team field. The University of the Cumberlands sit in first with 37 points and Siena Heights is second (29 points).
Staying with the SEU women, Maci Mills became an All-American twice on Friday. Individually, Mills registered an 800-meter run preliminary time of 2:15.00 for fifth place. Mills also ran the anchor leg of the quartet with Jillian Blaser, Jaa'Ln McBride, and Natalie Rohm for a strong fourth place in the 4x800-meter relay.
Adding another award to his resume, Joseph Taylor was the only SEU male runner to grab NAIA All-American honors when he qualified for the 400-meter finals with a seventh-place finish in the preliminaries (47.96), his fourth-straight year as an All-American.
In an extremely fast final where the top eighth finishers all broke the facility record, T.J. Sanders finished just out of All-America acclaim in ninth place with a time of 14:51.22. It was his time of 14:14.84 he set as the facility record going into Friday.
The Fire trio of Davien Worrels, James Williamson III, and Taylor missed the top eight in the 200-meter dash preliminaries. Worrels missed the final spots to advance by only .03 seconds as he was ninth in 21.24. Williamson and Taylor were not far behind in 12th (21.46) and 15th (21.75).
Dario Laing ran 8.10 for 17th in the 60-meter dash prelims as the final men's competitor.
McBride crossed the 600-meter run prelim finish line in 1:36.09 for 15th. Grace Feder ran in the mile in 5:19.68 (20th).
SEU aims to add to their All-America total at the final day of the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Nationals on Saturday.
