PITTSBURG, Kan. — Tyanna Petty-Craft notched another All-American finish and set a new school record in the Women’s Pentathlon following Thursday’s action in the 53rd Annual NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships at the Robert W. Plaster Center.
The Somerset, Ohio senior piled up a school-record 3,592 points to take third place in the event. The top eight finishers earn All-American status.
Petty-Craft’s point total eclipsed her previous school record of 3,324 set earlier this season.
She won the 800-meter run portion of the competition with a time of 2:20.69, finished second in the high jump after clearing 1.67m, placed seventh in the both the 60-meter hurdles (9.19) and long jump (5.13m) and was eighth in the shot put with a toss of 9.45m.
Fellow senior Nikola Andjelic (Split, Croatia) had qualified third in the Men’s Heptathlon, but pulled out of the competition during its opening event – the 60-meter dash – with a foot injury.
On Friday, Rio freshman Cameron Haught (Enon, OH) finished 11th in the Men’s 3,000-meter race walk with a time of 14:35.28 and fellow frosh Zavien Parker (Pickerington, OH) failed to qualify for the Men’s 200-meter finals after placing 23rd in the preliminary round with a time of 22.47.
Also on Friday, senior Katie Browning (Athens, OH) placed 10th in the Women’s Pole Vault after clearing a height of 3.55m.
The championship meet wraps up on Saturday with two events involving representatives from Rio.
Senior Alex Nichols (Pickerington, OH) is in the men’s shot put at 1 p.m., while Petty-Craft is in the women’s high jump at 1:30 p.m.
Nichols qualified 26th with an effort of 15.46m and Petty-Craft was 11th among the qualifiers in her event with a mark of 1.65m. Petty-Craft is the defending national champion.
Randy Payton is the Sports Information Director at the University of Rio Grande.
