WALNUT, Calif. - Abilene Christian, the preeminent track and field program in NCAA Division II, showed it is unwilling to lose that moniker as the Wildcats won both the men's and women's titles Saturday night at Mt. San Antonio College.

The men won the team title for the 17th time and the women won for the 10th time. And it marks the seventh time the teams have won the title in the same year.

The men's team earned 108.5 points to out-distance runner-up St. Augustine's by six and a half points. Ashland was third, Adams State fourth and Lincoln fifth.

On Saturday, the Wildcats won four individual men's titles -  400 (Raymond Radway, 46.35), 3,000-meter steeplechase (Daniel Maina, 8:53.61), 110 high hurdles (Billy Walker, 13.86), and discus (Nick Jones, 56.99 meters).

The women's Wildcats ran away with the win. They scored 76.5 points and won by 21.5 points over runner-up Adams State. Lincoln was third, UC San Diego fourth and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville fifth.

Abilene Christian's women won three individual titles - 400 (Keva Watkins, 54.05), 3,000-meter steeplechase (Winrose Karunde, 10:20.42) and javelin (Linda Brivule, 51.74 meters).

Karunde's and Brivule's victories were meet records. She surpassed the time of 10:22.06, set by Jennifer Michel of Western State in 2001. Brivule's distance of 169-9 topped the mark of 169-0, set by Amber Miller of Angelo State in 2003.

Dennis Boone of St. Augustine was a double-winner as he took the two sprints, the 100 and 200. He won the 100 in 10.21 seconds and less than an hour later won the 200 in 20.65.

Chico State's Scott Bauhs, who won last year's 10,000 title, won his only event of the meet - the 5,000. He won in 14:00.65.       

St. Augustine's Barbara Pierre successfully defended her title in the 100 meters. She won in 11.47 seconds.

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Abilene Christian, UC San Diego hold teams leads after Day 2 of the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Championships

WALNUT, Calif. – Jennifer Hensel of Minnesota State Moorhead defended her title in the pole vault in fine fashion Friday night as she set a meet record to headline Day 2 of the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Championships, held at Mt. San Antonio College.

Hensel cleared the bar at 13 feet, 2 ½ inches to break the record of 13-1 ¾ held by Chaunte Mitchell of Cal State Stanislaus in 2005.

Hensel was the only individual to set a record on the second consecutive day of unseasonably cool and rainy weather in Southern California.

The opening day was delayed by more than two hours, but Friday’s edition ran on time with intermittent showers throughout the day.

Six women’s champions were crowned and second-day leader UC San Diego grabbed the lead with a pair of victories.  After eight events, the Tritons have 32 points and were led by Linda Rainwater, who won the heptathlon with 5,052 points, and Whitney Johnson, who won the triple jump (40-9 ¾).

Abilene Christian is second at 26.5 points.

Jessica Selby-Tallman of Missouri Southern won the women’s hammer throw. She achieved the win with a 191-10 effort.

Sarah Montez of Chico State pulled away from Seattle Pacific’s Jane Larson in the final 100 meters to win the 3,000 in 9 minutes, 39 seconds.

Katie Wilson of Wayne State won the shot put with a 51-11 ¾ heave to outdistance Selby-Tallman, who was second (51-3).

In the men’s competition, Abilene Christian is on its way to earning its seventh straight and 11 in the last 13, but looming is Ashland. Through six events, the Wildcats have 28 points, just one point ahead of Ashland.

The Wildcats went 1-2 in the decathlon for only the third time in NCAA Division II history.  Senior Camille Vandendreissche became the eighth male to win consecutive decathlon titles in NCAA Division II history with 7,385 points. Teammate Chris Pounds was second with 7,351.

Dan Raithel of Central Missouri won the hammer with a 219-8 effort and improved from his runner-up position last season.

The shot put and high jump were won by a pair of familiar champions. Bemidji State’s Brian Vicker won his second straight shot put title with a 63-2 effort.  Joe Kindred of St. Augustine repeated in the high jump

Bemidji State’s Brian Vickers repeated in the shot put at 63-2.

Junior Joe Kindred of St. Augustine’s won the high jump at 6-11 ¾.

The final day begins at 11 a.m. Saturday with the men’s javelin.

Opening Day Recap:

WALNUT – The opening day of the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Championships got underway at Mt. San Antonio College and hosted by Cal Poly Pomona. And sharing the spotlight with the student-athletes was a rare May storm that hit most of Southern California.

Rain hit the Walnut area about 2 p.m. and forced a two-plus hour delay. The rain forced both the men’s and women’s hammer throws to be contested on Friday. The men will compete at 10:00 a.m., while the women will throw at 12:00 p.m.

Kirbey Blackley of Findlay won the women’s long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 1 ¾ inches.

Alaska-Anchorage’s David Registe won the long jump with a leap of 24 feet 8 ½ inches (7.53 meters). He won the meet going away as he also posted marks of 7.37 and 7.49 meters, which were the second and third best jumps of the meet.

The women’s and men’s 10,000 meters began at 10:50 and 11:30, respectively. Freshman Winrose Karunde of Abilene Christian won the female event in 35:29.68.

Daniel Kirwa of Harding won the men’s 10,000 in 29:14.74.

Friday’s events will begin at 10 a.m. with day two of the decathlon and heptathlon. The first running event will be the women’s 3,000 meters at 5:25 p.m.

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Withrow Takes Early Lead

WALNUT, Calif. – Winrose Karunde captured Abilene Christian University's first national championship in the women's 10,000 meters, and Jessica Withrow took the first-day lead in the heptathlon Thursday on the opening day of the 46th annual NCAA Division II national outdoor track and field championships.

Karunde, a freshman who was runner-up in NCAA Division II cross country last fall, broke from the lead pack late in the race, then outran Emporia State senior Jonel Rossbach to the finish to win in 35:29.88.  Karunde was also winner of the indoor 5,000 meters in NCAA Division II earlier this year.  Her victory in the 10,000 followed by only two hours her qualifying race in the 3,000-steeplechase, where she posted Thursday's best top time.

Withrow, a Wildcat junior who is the defending women's multi-event champion, won two of Thursday's four events and finished with 3,059 points to hold a 92-point cushion over runner-up Linda Rainwater of California-San Diego.  Withrow won the high jump with 5-7.25 (867 points), and she was the surprise winner in the shot put with 35-8 (587).  She also ran 14.89 in the 100 hurdles (856) and 26.56 in the 200 (749).  At last year's national meet in Charlotte, N.C., Withrow won her first title with 5,041 points despite not winning any of the seven individual events.

Also in Thursday's competition, which was twice delayed for a total of about three hours by rain and lightning at Lodge Stadium on the campusof Mt. San Antonio College, Chris Pounds (second) and Camille Vandendreissche (fourth) are among the leaders in the decathlon after the first five events.

Pounds, the 2007 Lone Star Conference champion, won the first two individual events of the decathlon and finished the first day with 3,881 points, and Vandendreissche, the defending champion, has 3,613 points.  Desi Burt of Cal State-Los Angeles, also the first-day leader last year, is on top again in 2008 with 4,057 points.

Pounds won the 100 in 11.18 (821 points) and long jump in 23-11.5 (886) to start the competition, and he kept the lead after his 43-3.75 in the shot put (679).  But Burt took the lead after the high jump, where he dominated the competition with 6-11.5 (925 points) to only 6-1.25 for Pounds (679).  The ACU senior finished with 49.98 in the 400, just back of Burt's 49.97.

Also in Thursday's finals, ACU freshman Ramon Sparks was fifth in the men's long jump at 23-9.5, and Amos Sang was fifth in the men's 10,000 in 29:33.31 in the day's last race which finished after midnight PST.

The men's and women's hammer throw finals, originally scheduled Thursday, were rescheduled for Friday because of Thursday's inclement weather.  The men will throw at 10 a.m. as the decathlon begins, and the women will follow at noon after the start of the heptathlon at 11 a.m.

In Thursday's preliminaries for running events, both ACU 400 relay teams advanced after the women ran 46.44, and the men ran 40.49. Julius Nyango qualified in the 1,500 with 3:53.10, and Raymond Radway had the best time in the men's 400 in 46.14 to advance with teammate Jordan Johnson (46.74), the 2006 national champion as a freshman.  In the women's 400, Keva Wilkins was a heat winner in 55.04, and Azraa Rounds also advanced with 55.22.

The ACU women also advanced two qualifiers in the steeplechase with Karunde leading in 10:40.12 and Loice Cheboi running 10:55.35.

ACU's Daniel Maina, the recent Penn Relays champion, easily advanced in the men's steeplechase in 9:17.16.

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Feature: Chico State's Scott Bauhs
Amy Farnum Novin
NCAA.com

Chico State’s Scott Bauhs knew from an early age that he was fast – all he needed was a little time to prove it.

The junior from Danville, Calif., began running in a cross country league in the fifth grade, and has not stopped since. 

“I started realizing I was more talented in running than my peers really early on in elementary school,” said Bauhs.  “I was somewhat athletic, but I really excelled in running more than the other aspects of different sports.”

Bauhs definitely had the talent to run collegiate track, although he was not a big name in the sport at the time.   When former San Ramon Valley High School teammate Katie Lee began breaking distance records at Chico State, Bauhs’ high school coach suggested he consider the program and put him in communication with the Wildcats’ distance coach Gary Towne.

“Gary started recruiting me much earlier than other coaches did,” said Bauhs.  “I didn’t really give any other schools a fair shake.  I knew Chico would fit my needs.  It worked out much better than I ever anticipated.”

After redshirting his first year in track & field, Bauhs has seen vast improvement in his times, shedding 1:20 minutes off his time in the 5K, and dropping almost four minutes off his best mark in the 10K.  In his first season of NCAA Division II competition, Bauhs claimed All-America honors in the 10K, but failed to qualify for the final in the 5K race. Then, in his redshirt sophomore season, Bauhs put on the jets.  

“Last year, he really busted through and won the 10K in an amazing race,” said Towne.  “It was one of the most spectacular races I’ve seen – he beat the Division II Runner of the Year (Nicodemus Naimadu of Abilene Christian) to win the race by a few tenths of a second.  Then, he came back (in the same meet) to help his team get a 1-2 finish in the 5K.”

This season, Bauhs started his outdoor season with a bang, becoming only the 308th American to run under a four-minute mile (3:59.81), and the first Chico State runner to accomplish the feat during an invitational on the Wildcats’ home track.

“It was a great start to my track season and nice way to get things rolling,” said Bauhs.  “The time itself isn’t as special to me, but the fact I was able to do it in Chico and how many people that came out to see it was special.  I think there were 2,400 people in the stands – that’s kind of unheard at a track meet at a small school in an out of the way city.  The fact that I was able to break four minutes, instead of having the whole crowd disappointed, was just the frosting on top.”

Bauhs was not satisfied with his recent achievements though – he had dreams of competing in the Olympics, and this season, he has become one step closer to realizing those dreams.  On May 4, Bauhs broke the Division II record in the 10K by almost 15 seconds at the Payton Jordon Invitational at Stanford by clocking the fastest time by American this year (27:48.06) and reaching the Olympic A standard. 

The performance qualified him for the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., on July 4 (one of seven Americans to do so), and if he places in the top three, Bauhs will earn a trip to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

“It was pretty special,” said Bauhs.  “I didn’t really imagine getting that fast so soon – if ever.  It certainly wasn’t something I thought would happen while I was still in college.  I recognized a long time before this year that I would improve and hopefully become a really good, special runner and possible have a shot at the Olympics, but we were always thinking 2012, we were never thinking 2008. 

“To have the opportunity now is really special because it only happens ever four years, if I can do it this year – the more shots you have at it, the better your chances are.”

Bauhs may have not believed his times would drop so fast, but Towne knew he had the foundation to become one of the best.

“He’s always had a great attitude is a really fierce competitor, but I think it just took time for training to sink in,” said Towne.  “He also committed himself at a higher level in different areas of his life that has helped him turn the corner into being a really good distance runner.  He’s always had the attitude and the fire to compete and not to limit himself -- those are factors you just cannot put a price on for distance running.”

At the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the recently crowned USTFCCCA Division II West Region Male Athlete of the Year will vie for his first 5K title as he enters the meet with a top-ranked time of 13:31.90.  Bauhs will not be competing in the 10K in order to better prepare for the Olympic Trials.

The Division II Championships will be held at Mt. Sac College in Walnut, Calif., on May 22-24.