Tuesday, May 31, 2011 by AMU Athletics Staff

Print Email RSS Share

Marion, Indiana - Brian Stine capped a good first year of track and field for the AMU team when he placed 11th at the NAIA National Meet held at Indiana Wesleyan.

Stine covered the 5000m Race Walk in a time of 24:36.73. There were a total of 15 race walkers entered in the race won by Even Dunfee of the University of British Columbia. Dunfee set an NAIA national meet record with a time of 20:02.

"Brian walked very well in just his three race walk events; finishing right at his qualifying mark. He did a nice job of competing against the group of walkers that were in his ability range. His technique was strong. The judging was at the International Level with three of the five USA internationally certified judges as part of the panel," commented Coach Mike De Witt.

"I am hopeful Brian will continue to compete and train in the event. He has progressed very far in the two months that he has trained for the event," De Witt added.

VIVAS, PELISKA, AND MYLER JUST MISS QUALIFYING MARKS FOR NAIA NATIONALS

Danny Vivas, Amy Myler, and Taylor Peliska made strong attempts to meet the NAIA National Qualifying Standards over the past few weeks to close out the Runnin' Gyrene Track Season.

May 5th had the athletes competing at the University of Central Florida Twilight. Peliska placed 2nd in the 1500m Run with a time of 4:16.96, Vivas placed 5th in the 800m Run with a time of 1:57.75, and Myler was 9 in the 800m Run with a time of 2:19.26.

Saturday May 14th saw Myler finish 14th in the 800m Run in a time of 2:18.87 and Vivas was 17th in the 800m Run in a time of 1:57.02. That event was held at the University of North Florida.

Vivas traveled north to North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, where he placed 46th out of 87 runners in the 800m Run (the event had 8 sections of the event and he finished 6th in the 4th section) with a time of 1:56.12.

One final note was freshman phenom, Marya Haegler. She elected not to compete at this year's NAIA National Meet, which she had qualified for in the 10000m, 5000m, and 1500m events.

Coach De Witt commented on the overall success of the track team this spring: "It was a lot of fun to work with the eight AMU athletes that did all they could to improve as athletes and more importantly as people during the season. I enjoyed the great positives that each member brought with them to each training session and meet."