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The Wayland Baptist women scored 102 points to win their second straight NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championship at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. The WBU women easily outdistanced their nearest competitor, Oklahoma Baptist, which finished with 58 points.
With their back-to-back indoor championships in 2008 and 2009, the Pioneer women have now won four straight national track and field banners under the direction of coaches Brian Whitlock and Rohan Thompson.
"I couldn't ask for a better weekend from our team," said Whitlock, who was named the 2009 NAIA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. "We scored 102 points with seven women, and that's pretty special. Our sprints, jumpers and our distance runners all performed very well. I can't single out any one performer. It was a team effort."
Leading by 10 points after the first two days of competition, the Pioneer women opened the gap right off the bat with a victory in the 4x100-meter relay. Bianca Grant, Latanya Nation, Keliesha Ross and Kimberly Smith just missed setting a new school record with a time of 45.27. The current mark is 45.27.Purity Biwott captured the first of her two individual titles on the day in the next race, winning the 1500-meters in a time of 4:26.57, over six seconds faster than the second place finisher. Ninety minutes later, the sophomore from Kenya set a new school record in the 800-meters, taking first place with a time of 2:05.86.
Smith made it 3-for-3 on the day when she successfully defended her title in the 200-meter dash. The sophomore ran a 23.72, taking four-tenths off her winning time of a year ago and setting a personal record. On Friday, Smith became the first repeat national champion in the 100-meters since 2006 when she shaved a tenth of a second off her 2008 time with a 11.58. Grant picked up two points in the race with a seventh place finish.
Caroline Karunde got her second silver plaque of the meet late Saturday afternoon, finishing the 5000-meters in a time of 16:54.05.
The women surpassed the 100 point mark in the day's final competition when Ross, Smith, Leandria Lee and Biwott nearly upset the Oklahoma Baptist women in the 4x400-meter relay. The Pioneers placed second, finishing with a time of 3:43.99. It has been three years since a team has reached the 100-point plateau at the national championships.
While Smith and Biwott took care of business on Saturday for the Wayland women, Friday was Latanya Nation's day. Nation scored 14 points on the meet's second day with a second place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and a third place in the triple jump. The sophomore from Jamaica hit two personal records, running 14.23 in the hurdles, missing out on her first individual championship by just two-hundredths of a second. Her mark of in the triple jump was 12.10 meters (39-08.50).
The top six finishers in each event were named NAIA All-Americans. Seven of the eight Pioneer women who made the trip earned All-American honors. They were entered in 11 events during the three-day competition, winning five of the events, placing second in five others, and finishing in third place once.
"The heart that these girls showed was just unbelievable. Day-after-day, trial-after-trial, they ran. Nobody faltered and nobody gave up. Even after we had the championship sewed up, they were out there running their hardest. It just leaves me speechless to think about what these girls did these past three days."
The Wayland men also turned in a good performance, winding up the national championships in a tie for 17th place with 16 points. The Pioneers got 13 points on Saturday, including a sixth place finish in the 4x400-meter relay. Stanley Smith, Jerry-Lee Davis, Mario Scott and Caleb McLean ran a season-low 3:11.32 in the day's final event.
McLean also picked up a sixth place finish and All-American honors in the 400-meters, running a time of 47.95. Other point producers were freshman Lee Prevost who was sixth in the triple jump with a personal record of 14.30 meters or 46-11.0, and junior Kirby Dunn who ran a 1:50.59 in the 800-meters to finish fifth.