Doane College Sports

Marvin's sixth in javelin highlights Tiger Thursday

MARION, Ind. — Crete High graduate Micah Marvin was one of three Doane throwers to score points for the Doane track and field team Thursday on the first day of the NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Marvin, who graduated from Doane last week, placed sixth in the javelin throw Thursday night with a personal best of 205 feet, 1 inch. He was joined in the points by teammate Andrew Nielsen, who placed eighth at 202-3, also a personal record.

Whitney Collins scored the first point of the meet for the Tigers Thursday morning, placing eighth in the women’s hammer throw with a 162-6 toss.

Another big headliner of the day for Doane Thursday was Tiger sprinter BJ Lawrence, competing for the first time since straining a hamstring in practice May 1.

Lawrence ran three times in preliminary events Thursday and crossed the line first in each one.

In the trials of the men’s 4x100-meter relay, Lawrence anchored Doane to victory in a season-best time of 40.49 seconds, the second-fastest time of the day. The foursome of Sam Housh, Chris Busby, Adam Baxa and Lawrence ran together for the first time this season on the way to their prelim win.

Lawrence returned later Thursday afternoon to win his 100-meter dash preliminary in 10.51. Running into a 2.1 meter per second headwind, Lawrence recorded the fastest time of the day by 0.21 of a second.

In the 200 prelims, Lawrence coasted to another win in 21.69 and advanced to the semifinal round on Saturday, while teammate Busby placed sixth in his heat with a 22.39 clocking and also advanced.

Also on the track, the Tigers’ Edwin Ronoh won his 800-meter run prelim with a time of 1 minute, 53.37 seconds and advanced to the semifinal round on Friday.

Thursday was also the first day of the decathlon and heptathlon. Tiger freshman Erin DeVries stands in eighth place in the heptathlon after the first four events with 2,558 points, while Brad Higgins is 10th in the decathlon with 3,253 points.

Second-day action in the decathlon and heptathlon begins Friday morning, prior to a full slate of field event activity for the Tigers in the women’s shot put, men’s discus and women’s triple jump.

On the track Friday, Lawrence will be going for the national 100-meter dash title with semifinal and final rounds scheduled. The Tigers’ 4x100 relay will take to the track again for the semifinals and the Doane women’s 4x400 relay will close out the evening with their semifinal run at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time.

Watch for Doane updates throughout the day on the cretenews Twitter feed and a complete web update following the action.