McNeill, Cherutich, and Kwambai all qualified for the 5,000-meter finals for the Stars at the NAIA Indoor Championships

Men's Track & Field 3/5/2020 7:32:00 AM

Three Qualify for 5,000-meter Finals at NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Kwambai, Cherutich, McNeill Punch Tickets to Saturday at National Championships

BROOKINGS, S.D. - The NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships opened on Thursday afternoon with the Oklahoma City University men's and women's teams competing in a total of four events on the meet's opening afternoon.

The Stars had three runners qualify for event finals on Saturday with their performances on Thursday afternoon, all in the 5,000-meter runs, with Jacinda Kwambai, Kiprotu Cherutich, and Max McNeill all posting times that put them in the top-8 in the preliminaries.

Kwambai took to the track first for OCU, Competing in the first semifinal heat of the women's 5,000-meters. She paced the field in her heat, crossing the line in 17:39.10, holding off Huntington University's Aspen Dirr for the heat win. The second and final heat saw one runner - Emily Kearney of SCAD-Atlanta - post a better time than Kwambai, which qualified Kwambai for the 5,000-meter final, which will be run on Saturday at 3:35 p.m.

The next event up on the track was the men's 5,000-meter race preliminaries, which got underway 45 minutes after the women's began. McNeill was in the first heat of the men's event, and he crossed the line fourth in his heat - just more than two seconds behind the heat winner, Johnathan Bowen from St. Mary (Kan.). His time of 14:52.47 put him on the bubble to advance with the second heat still to run -which featured Cherutich. Cherutich finished his heat in third, posting a time of 14:52.16, less than five seconds off the pace in heat two. The duo both qualified for the finals, posting the sixth and seventh fastest qualifying times in the event.

The men's and women's 4x400-meter relay teams also competed on Thursday. The women's relay went first at 4:30 p.m., with OCU competing in the second heat of the preliminaries. The Stars posted a time of 3:57.26, which put them 13th in the final standings. The men ran the race in 3:20.50, which ranked them 15th.

Sarah Olamide will compete in the preliminaries of the mile run to open the day for OCU on Friday at 12:00 p.m., and Ronique Todman will get the men underway in the prelims of the 400-meters at 1:25 p.m. Shenelle Tomlinson and Nikole Halladay-Meth will also compete for the OCU women on Friday, while Cherutich, Kimani Gardner, Ian Thomas, and Antravius Perkins will take to the track for the men. To follow the results, click here, and to watch the action live, click here.

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Players Mentioned

Max McNeill: Senior

Sarah Olamide: Freshman

Antravius Perkins: Freshman

Ian Thomas: Junior

Kimani Gardner: 5' 8"; Junior

Shenelle Tomlinson: 5' 9"; Junior

Nikole Halladay-Meth: Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Max McNeill
: Senior

Sarah Olamide
: Freshman

Antravius Perkins
: Freshman

Ian Thomas
: Junior

Kimani Gardner
: 5' 8"; Junior

Shenelle Tomlinson
: 5' 9"; Junior

Nikole Halladay-Meth
: Sophomore