Yellow Jackets on top in day two of the NCCAA Track and Field Championships

By Matt Schaeckenbach

There’s something in the air that every athlete knows. An energy. A buzz. Those old familiar butterflies come tingling back to the stomach as the crowds roar and cheer, unlike they have before. 

It’s the same events, the same competitors, but something’s different. The stakes are higher, the performances are better and the energy within the team feels like it’s been ramped up. 

Championship season. 

There’s nothing quite like it. When the title is on the line, every athlete knows that when the dust settles, a new NCCAA national champion will be crowned. No athlete can do it alone, and it takes every member of the team showing up on the day to win. Bad races happen, breakout performances change the course of the night, and injuries throw a wrench in teams’ plans; still someone has to win the title. 

For Lady Jackets, that’s just what they did on day two of the NCCAA Track and Field Championships. Coming into the day with a narrow lead, the Lady Jackets stood just two points above the second-place team of Malone. It was anyone’s guess who would take the title, but after the first event of the day, Cedarville showed that they would not be denied another title. 

Cedarville came out strong in the opening event, placing second in the 4×800 meter relay with the quartet of Nelson, Wilson, Hall and Fernald. The effort earned the group All-American titles–given to the top three finishers in each event.

The Lady Jackets continued to put up solid performances throughout the day, slowly building their lead thanks to one key ingredient: depth. The women’s team scored in every event on the day except for the women’s weight throw. And they didn’t just score one athlete. The majority of these races saw two to three Yellow Jackets placing in the top eight. 

One such Yellow Jacket was senior Audrianna Enns, who had a dominant showing on the second day of competition. Enns started the day by leading her team in the mile run. Joining a pack of four other Cedarville runners, the group steadily controlled the race from the front. Enns led her teammates for most of the race, pulling the pack along until the final few laps, where she put in a strong surge to gap her teammates. 

Racing to the finish line, Enns crossed with a time of 5:04.18, winning the event by a full seven seconds over her second-place teammate, Abby Kaiser. 

Joining Kaiser and Enns on the All-American platform was freshman Ruby Gross, finishing in third with a time of 5:14.90. The Lady Jackets took the top five positions in this race, securing an impressive 33 points for the team in a single event.

But Enns wasn’t done leading her team. Less than an hour later, she took back to the track, racing in her best event, the 800-meter dash. Starting strong, Enns showed no signs of fatigue from her former accomplishments, as she raced out front with her teammate Sydney Diedrich. 

Together with a runner from Crown, the threesome slowly separated themselves from the rest of the field. However, just like she had in the mile, Enns dropped her signature surge, pulling ahead of the field in the final stretch and winning her second event of the day with a time of 2.19.74. 

Diedrich finished in third, earning another All-American title for the Lady Jackets. Sophomores Addison Harrington and Amelia Maier also raced their way to some points in this event, helping the team secure another 20 points. 

Other standout performances on the women’s side came from Jessica Ferguson and the Tompkins twins, Ari and Julie. This trio of 400 specialists showed up for the team at Saturday’s championship, going 2-4 in the open event. 

Then, teaming up with each other later in the night along with Angela Williams, this foursome ran their way to the fastest time of the night in the 4×400 meter relay. 

From the gun, Cedarville controlled the race, taking an early lead thanks to Julie Tompkins strong opening leg. Building the lead, Ferguson passed to Williams, and Williams passed to Ari Tompkins. Carrying the baton around, the team crossed the finish line unchallenged, winning by a full five seconds over the second-place team from Malone. 

When the dust settled and the scores were tallied, Cedarville dominated the night, racking up 195 total team points across the two days and smashing the second-place team from Bethel by nearly 100 points–more than doubling their score. 

The win secured the Lady Jackets their 8th straight NCCAA title.

While the women shone, the men fell flat. Coming into the day in third place, the team looked to put in a surge to pass the top-ranked team from Malone. 

However, it was an uphill battle all day, with Malone seeming to score two points for every one of Cedarville’s. While there were still several strong performances, such as the runner-up finish by the men’s 4×800 meter quartet of Thompson, Knoerr, Roth and Major, Cedarville failed to win a single event on the men’s side on day two. 

Ultimately, the men had to settle for third, falling from their runner-up position by one point in the final race to Bethel University.

It was a difficult defeat for the men, who thus far this season have dominated the competition on every level. Despite the shortcomings, head coach Jeff Bolender was overwhelmingly positive about both teams. 

“Really proud of how this team is staying focused and disciplined as they strive to reach their goals,” Bolender said. “Determination and work ethic are so critical to success in athletics, and I am seeing this often with so many of our athletes.”

The Yellow Jackets will be headed to the University of Wittenberg for the Wittenberg Invite on February 21, looking to clean up the final pieces of their training before the Conference Championship the following week, where they will face their toughest competition yet. 

Matt Schaeckenbach is a Junior Liberal Arts major from Iowa City, Iowa. He loves spending time with his family, doing shenanigans with his friends, and encouraging others in Christ.