Storm Lake, IA – The No. 1 nationally ranked Indian Hills Men's Track & Field team opened up the 2024 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 11 Indoor Track & Field Championship in impressive fashion on Friday night, collecting two individual titles to open up postseason action.
Competing at the Lambert Recreating Center on the campus of Buena Vista University, freshman Tate Joens (Cedar Rapids, IA/Cedar Rapids Prairie) and sophomore Troy Johnson (Lancaster, PA/J.P. McCaskey) garnered individual Region titles to power the Warriors on day one of the two-day championship event. As a team, the Warriors sit in third-place after the opening day of action with 46 team points.
Joens put the nation on notice Friday night in the men's weight throw with the top mark among all NJCAA participants this season, shattering his own school record with a distance of 18.56 meters. Joens captured the weight throw championship to score 10 team points for the Warriors, winning the event by more than 1.5 meters. Joens becomes the first-ever NJCAA Region 11 Weight Throw individual champion in school history for the Warriors.
Along with Joens, the Warriors saw top-five efforts in the weight throw from teammates Michael Etuma (Iowa City, IA/Iowa City) and Ryan Edelman (Mounds View, MN/Mounds View) who both hit personal-best marks for the Warriors. Etuma placed third overall with a mark of 16.65 meters, the sixth-best mark in the nation to earn a spot on the podium while Edelman placed fifth overall with a mark of 16.40, ranked seventh in the nation this year. The duo combined for 10 team points in the event
Johnson continued to star for the Warriors in the long jump event as the sophomore collected the individual Region title to score 10 points for the Warriors. An NJCAA All-American from a year ago, Johnson jumped to a mark of 7.23 meters, outlasting North Iowa Area Community College's Terrence Thomas by 0.02 meters.
Johnson was joined by teammate Anthony Ward (Madison, WI/Madison Memorial) who posted a mark of 7.15 meters in the event to place fourth overall. Both Johnson and Ward rank 1-2 in school history, respectively in the long jump event.
The Warriors also saw dominant performances in the prelim rounds of both the 60-meter hurdle and 60-meter dash events. Teammates Cyrus Ways (Ponte Vedra, FL/Nease) and Triston Miller (Columbus Junction, IA/Columbus Junction) cruised to the top-two marks in the 60mH with times of 8.04 and 8.05 respectively to earn a spot in the finals on Saturday.
Sophomore Traunard Folson (Jacksonville, FL/Andrew Jackson) posted the top time in the 60m dash with a mark of 6.70 to punch his ticket to Saturday's final. Teammate Stephen Brown (Pontiac, MI/Lake Orion) also earned a spot in the championship race with a time of 6.89, the fifth-best mark in the prelims. Brown also earned a spot in the 200-meter dash finals with a prelim time of 22.38, fourth-best on the day.
Action gets underway Saturday morning at 9:00 AM.
Fans can catch all of the action live: WATCH LIVE | LIVE RESULTS
Looking for Indian Hills Athletics information straight to your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter and mobile alerts to receive news, scores, highlights, and more in real-time: INDIAN HILLS ATHLETICS NEWSLETTER
