Maryville, MO – The Indian Hills Men's Track & Field team opened its 2021-22 campaign at the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic at Northwest Missouri State on Saturday. Eight individuals recorded national qualifying marks in the season opener.

"We walked away with eight men's individual national qualifiers and one relay," stated head coach Brent Ewing. "We had a few other men who were very close to qualifying. Any time you can do that in the first meet with a partial squad, you have to be pleased as a coach. We certainly have a lot to improve and work on from a technical and race tactic standpoint, but that's to be expected with it being December."

Roneldo Rock (St. Joseph, Barbados/Grantley Adams Memorial) highlighted the Warriors performance on Saturday with a school record in the 600-meter run. Rock qualified for the national championship with a time of 1:20.75 to win the event by just .07 seconds.

The men's 4x400-meter relay team was also dominant in its season debut on Saturday as the quartet took home first place with a time of 3:16.03, finishing over three seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. The squad of Justin Walden (Miami, FL/North Miami), Rivaldo Marshall (Kingston, Jamaica/Calabar), Woyn Chatman (Little Rock, AR/Little Rock Central), and Kendrick Winfield (Louisville, KY/Louisville Male) qualified for the national championship with its performance.

Chatman also qualified for the national championship individually in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.18. Chatman's time was the top mark in the event, ahead of Walden's second-place finish in 49.19.

Aurel Tchanbi (Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire/College Heleis) was a dual national championship qualifier on Saturday in a pair of events – the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. Tchanbi finished first overall in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.75 and finished second overall in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.67.

Rivaldo Marshall (Kingston, Jamaica/Calabar) took home first-place in the men's 1000-meter run with a time of 2:27.92, good enough for a national qualifying time. Marshall's mark was just ahead of teammate Aniey Akok (Ames, IA/Ames) who placed second with a national qualifying time of 2:30.05.

"Tchanbi, Rock, Chatman, and Marshall's performances really stood out to me," Ewing added. "Seeing Rock break the 600-meter school record in his first indoor meet ever was really impressive."

Isiah Thomas (Milwaukee, WI/Destiny High School) posted a 6.87 mark in the men's 60-meter dash to pass the national qualifying standard, good enough for a fourth-place finish while Jamal Safo (Crete, IL/Crete-Monee) recorded a 6.83 in the 60-meter dash prelims.

Next up for the Warriors is the Iowa State Holiday Invitational Dec. 10-11 in Ames, IA.