DELAWARE, Ohio – David
Dillow placed sixth in the men's decathlon and Irene
Johnson broke her own school record in the women's 100 meter
hurdles for George Fox University in Friday's competition in
the 2011 NCAA Division III Track and Field National Championships
here at Ohio Wesleyan University's Selby Field/Gauthier
Track.
Men
Entering the last event of the decathlon, the 1,500 meter run,
Dillow stood in ninth place, one point behind Garrett Harms of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dillow then proceeded to
beat Harms by 27/100ths of a second, 4:27.80 to 4:28.07, to win the
race, earning 759 points to 757 for his nearest competitor.
That enabled him to pass three other athletes, including Harms,
gave him a one-point edge for sixth, 6,537 to 6,536, earned him
All-America status, and secured three points for the George Fox
men's team in the overall competition.
Dillow had been eighth after the first five events on Thursday,
but climbed two places with finishes of 18th in the 110 meter
hurdles (16.63), a tie for fifth in the discus throw (115-1 /
35.08m), seventh in the pole vault (13-9.25 / 4.20m), 14th in the
javelin throw (147-1 / 44.84m), and first in the 1,500.
Twin brother Nate Dillow also moved up two spots to 13th with
6,201 points, finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles (15.30), 18th in
the discus (90-6 / 27.58), tied for fourth in the pole vault
(14-5.25 / 4.40m), 18th in the javelin (136-11 / 41.74m), and 14th
in the 1,500 meter run (4:53.33).
Ethan Miller of Central College (Iowa), who was second after the
first day, won the decathlon with 7,170 points, followed by
teammate Kurtis Brondyke with 7,109. There were 19
decathletes in all.
Jon Udlock is the only remaining George Fox men's athlete
still to compete; he will enter the javelin throw on Saturday at
3:00 p.m. Eastern time (12:00 noon Pacific).
Women
Johnson ran a 14.21 in the second preliminary heat of the
women's 100 hurdles, the fourth-best time of the day, and
will run in the finals on Saturday at 2:25 p.m. Eastern time (11:15
a.m. Pacific). Her mark broke the previous George Fox record
of 14.34 which she had run in the GFU Last Chance meet on May 20;
in fact, she has broken the record three times this spring.
The women's heptathlon also concluded Friday, with the
Bruins' Alexis Arnold finishing 16th out of 22 athletes with
4,382 points and Beth Stam 20th with 4,250. Janey Helland of
Gustavus Adolphus College won the heptathlon with 5,061 points
after catching first-day leader Emma Dewart of Ithaca College, who
fell to second with a score of 5,015.
In Friday's events, Arnold was 10th in the long jump
(16-6.5 /5.04m), 15th in the javelin (99-10 / 30.42m), and 16th in
the 800 meter run (2:34.59). Stam came in 18th in the long
jump (16-0.5 / 4.89m), 10th in the javelin (104-11 / 31.98m), and
17th (2:37.23) in the 800.
Stam took only one throw in the javelin before passing on her
final two throws due to the recurrence of a sore elbow which she
had hurt during the Oregon Twilight meet on May 6. She was
second in the nation in the javelin entering the national
championships, but George Fox coach John Smith announced that she
is withdrawing from the finals on Saturday.
Results of the NCAA Division III National Championships through
two days of competition may be found on line at http://bishops.owu.edu/ncaatf/index.html.
