Maryville, Missouri -- The Indian Hills men's track and field team earned four NJCAA national qualifying marks in their first action of the indoor season at the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic at Northwest Missouri State University.

Indian Hills was the lone two-year school in the event that included more than 20 four-year schools, four of them ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA DII ranks.

The four Warriors already assured of qualfying for the indoor nationals include Tyler Dunigan in the 60 meter dash and Micha Reed, Kohner Butts and Elijah Berry, all in the 600 yard run.

Berry, Butts and Reed all broke the meet record and the Indian Hills school record in the 600.  Berry ran 1:10.81 and Butts 1:10.82, both breaking the Hughes Fieldhouse record.  Butts's time was almost four seconds faster than last year in the same race.  Reed ran 1:12.4.

Dunigan won the 60 meters in 6.82, just .01 off his personal best.

Floyd Pond finished 5th in the 60 meters (6.91), less than a second off the national qualifying mark.  Pond also placed 10th in the 200 meters, running 22.49.

Tracy Gates recorded a 5th-place finish in the men's long jump, leaping 6.70 meters.

Kendall Banks-Price jumped 1.94 meters for 5th in the high jump, a lifetime best for him in his first-ever collegiate competition.

Nathan Simons was 3rd in the men's 400 meters, finishing in 49.76.  Simons also ran the anchor leg of the 4x400 meter relay that finished 4th in 3:21.20.  He teamed with Dunigan, Berry and Reed in that event.

Zach White took 4th in the men's mile with his time of 4:29.80.  He was the lone men's distance runner to compete for IHCC.

Indian Hills head coach Brent Ewing said he thought his athletes brought a lot of positive energy to their first meet of the year.  "We may have been a little too excited and not quite as focused as I'd like," Ewing said.  "That's to be expected when it's the first meet  and 80 percent of your roster are freshmen.  Berry, Butts and Reed really put on a show.  They executed their races perfectly and showed they are capable of becoming three of the best middle distance runners in the nation.  I'm really proud of their execution.  Dunigan is our seasoned veteran.  He's a consistent leader for us in everything he does.  I wasn't surprised at all that he opened up the season as well as he did.  Simons and Banks-Price both stepped up big in their collegiate debuts.  Overall, I thought we walked away with some very good performances but we definitely have some areas we need to work on.  Our execution and focus have to get better.  That's part of having a young team.  We're excited to get back to work this next month before competing again in January."

The Warriors will compete in the Hawkeye Invitational at the University of Iowa in Iowa City on Jan. 11.

(For complete results of the Mel Tjeerdsma meet go to https://www.tfrrs.org/results/63635/2019_Mel_Tjeerdsma_Classic/