MARION, Ind. -- Senior Thomas Collet leaped his way into the Indiana Wesleyan University record books on Friday afternoon at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships being hosted by Indiana Wesleyan.
Collet captured Indiana Wesleyan's fifth overall NAIA national championship and fourth for the track and field program with his victory in the Men's Long Jump. Collet is the first Wildcat male to win a national title as an individual as previously the 2008 Men's 4 x 800-Meter Relay team was the only male national championship for the school.
The senior had to sweat out a decision by the officials to decide if he would even make it out of his preliminary flight. Collet and three others tied for the last spot in the finals and the officials chose to let all four competitors advance rather than use a tie breaker and chose just one.
"(The officials) were taking a really long time trying to figure out which tiebreaker process to go with," said Collet. "I knew I had to stay loose so I treated it as if I was going to advance. Eventually they said all four of us were moving on (to the finals)."
Collet quickly took the event lead on his first jump during the finals with a mark of 7.44-meters. That mark would have been enough for the victory, but he bettered it on his final attempt with a leap of 7.61-meters (24-11.75) to secure the national title.
"I couldn't end my senior season any better," added Collet. "My best jump in the biggest event of the year, I couldn't be happier."
Collet earned 10 points for Indiana Wesleyan with the first place finish. His 10 points has Indiana Wesleyan tied for 13th place in the team competition.
Two other Wildcat men competed in finals on Friday.
Freshman Seth Virgil also qualified for the Men's Long Jump. Virgil finished with a mark of 23-2.75 for a 13th place finish. In the Men's Discus, junior James Schortgen earned 17th place with a distance of 143-8.
The Indiana Wesleyan women were able to enter the team standings on Friday with five points. IWU is 30th of 55 teams that have scored in the meet.
Three points were earned by the Women's 4 x 800-Meter Relay team. The quartet repeated as NAIA All-Americans in the event from last season with their sixth place finish. Junior Angi Wolgemuth, junior Cassidy Wagner, sophomore Amanda Johnson and senior Lindsey Waggoner finished in a time of 9:11.42.
Senior Laura Bowman provided the other two points for the Wildcats with her seventh place showing in the Women's 100-Meter Dash. The top six in each event are designated All-American and Bowman missed that honor by just .002 seconds.
Bowman, Chelsea Heyne, Katelin Morgan and Lizzy Smith failed to advance out of the semifinals in the Women's 4 x 100-Meter Relay. The team finished in a time of 48.08 seconds. Beka Bentle competed in one flight of the Women's 5,000-Meter Run but did not make the finals with a 10th place finish and a time of 18:53.
Three Wildcats are still in action on Saturday, the final day of competition. Kelsey Devereaux will run in the Marathon at 6 a.m., Bowman will compete in the Women's 200-Meter Dash semifinals at 3:20 p.m. (finals at 4:50 p.m.) and Virgil will race in the Men's 200-Meter Dash semis at 3:30 p.m. (finals at 5:00 p.m.).
NAIA Day 2 Recap
