FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Indiana Tech men's track and field team kicked off the indoor part of their 2019-20 season Saturday at the Mastodon Opener, hosted by Purdue University Fort Wayne at Lutheran Health Fieldhouse with seven national qualifying standards and finishing first with 161 points, winning by 57 points.
Qawtavius Johnson won the 60 meter dash with an automatic qualifying standard time and career-best mark of 6.71 while
Anthony Franklin was second in 6.75 to also hit the NAIA "A" standard.
Zach Daniels hit the "A" standard in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.20.
Kadan Branam and
Malik Johnson punched their tickets to the 2020 NAIA National Championships with automatic qualifying standard performances in the vertical jumps. Branam cleared 2.07m/6-9.5 in the high jump while Johnson won the long jump and triple jump with "A" standard marks of 7.34m/24-1 and 14.96m/49-1, respectively. Johnson set a personal best in the triple jump while Branam also set a PR.
Dillan Cerny won the 800m in 1:59.14 while
Kudzanai Karawira won the mile in 4:23.74.
Daniel Buell had a pair of runner-up performances in the shot put and weight throw with marks of 14.59m/47-10.5 and 16.24m/53-3.5, respectively.
Gairy Springer finished second in the 600m with a time of 1:23.28.
Tech returns to action on Saturday, December 14 as they host the Strive for Greatness Invitational, presented by Circle Logistics, at the Turnstone Center. Meet time is set for 10:30 a.m. with the pole vault, while running events get underway at 1 p.m.
