Gulf Shores, Ala.–Derek Seddon (Jr., Knoxville, Iowa, Physical Education) won his third All-America award by posting the best effort ever in his top event as William Penn fared well at the NAIA Track and Field Outdoor National Championships Thursday through Saturday.

Seddon launched the discus a school-record distance of 188-1.75 to place second.  Jacob Armbrust of Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) unfortunately held him off with a mark of 194-1; both individuals had their best throws in the opening round.

For the junior, it is his second time placing in the discus, also doing so last spring (shot put All-American in the indoor season as well).  He is the 14th All-American in William Penn men’s track and field history.

It also keeps the school’s streak of national championships with an All-American intact, stretching it to four in a row.  WPU has now claimed nine All-American honors since the 2013 indoor campaign.

Seddon’s effort helped the Statesmen to a tie for 37th place with eight points, while Indiana Tech easily won the team crown with 86 points.  Concordia (Neb.) slipped past Indiana Tech for the women’s title by five points, finishing with 71.

Armbrust is a senior, so Seddon will enter the 2017 outdoor campaign as the top returning discus thrower in the NAIA.

Seddon unfortunately did not have as much success in his other two events, placing a respectable 14th in the hammer at 168-1.5; he failed to post a distance in the shot put with three consecutive fouls.

Kalob Gist (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Business Management) headlined WPU’s senior quartet as he finished 13th in the shot put with a personal best of 51-8.75.

CJ Watts (Sr., Rockville, Md., Physical Education) was also strong in the 400-meter dash, ending up 13th in the preliminaries in 48.67 seconds.  He just missed qualifying for the finals by .56 seconds.

Neiman Thompson (Sr., Rockville, Md., Physical Education) ran into some issues in his 400 prelim heat and finished 19th overall in 53.41 seconds.

Meaghan Foster (Sr., Centerville, Iowa, Physical Education) concluded her career with a nice effort in the shot put, placing 17th at 42-10.

Derek Robinson (So., Jenks, Okla., Communications), like Gist and Thompson, was making his nationals debut and finished 23rd in the discus at 147-0.

 Story provided by Wade Steinlage

The Osky Girls’ Soccer team started their run towards state with a dominating 10-0 victory against Washington in the 1st round of regionals.  The win moves Osky to 10-6 on the year and for the first time in history, recording double-digit wins on the season.

The Indians having already beat Washington 10-0 earlier in the year came out a little flat throughout the 1st half, but were still able to go into halftime with a 4-0 lead.  The first goal was scored unassisted by junior Leah VanMaanen, in the 2nd minute of play.  Freshman Emily Lunsford, would come off the bench and make her presence be known in a huge way with a hat trick in the first 40 minutes of play.  Two of Lunsford’s goals were unassisted with the 3rd one being assisted by fellow freshman Aleeya Cheney.

“We had a talk with them at halftime that we can’t just go through the motions,” said Head Coach Jodi Steinlage. “We are playing in our 16th game of the season and know exactly what needs to be done and how we need to do it.  We challenged them to do that in the 2nd half and that is what the girls did.”

The second half saw a lot more aggressiveness and ball movement which led to some very pretty soccer by the Indians.  Cheney would get the 5th goal of the game just 2 minutes into the 2nd half with an assist from junior Ashley Brockman.  Senior Taylor Seaton, would get the first goal of her hat trick just a minute later after a nice hustle play from junior Claire Feichtner, who chased a ball all the way down the sideline and put in a beautiful cross.  Senior Andie Reif would get the 7th goal of the game in the 54th minute off a cross from VanMaanen.  Seaton would get the next two goals in the 62nd and 63rd minutes with assists from senior Jackie Reif and Lunsford.  The game would come to an end in the 68th minute when sophomore Emily Grahek would slot a ball passed the defense for a final score of 10-0.

The defense didn’t see a lot of action but was able to keep everything at bay with senior goalkeeper Sandra Blom and junior goalkeeper Maycie Stanbro sharing the shutout.

“We were pleased with how the girls came out in the 2nd half and took care of business like we know how to,” said Steinlage. “One person who put forth a lot of effort in the game, but didn’t have any goals for herself was Jackie Reif.  She was making hustle play after hustle play and kept a lot of plays alive for us and because of her hustle others were able to benefit from it.  She put everything out there today.”

“We will have to come out with the same intensity, tenacity, and aggressiveness we had in the 2nd half from the very beginning next Tuesday if we want to move on in regional play,” Steinlage continued. “The girls’ team has never made it past the second round and if we come out and play like we know how to, we will be able to give Clear Creek-Amana a run for their money.”

The girls’ team would like to say thank you for all the support the community has given us throughout the season and we are looking to play soccer into June.

The next game is the regional semifinal and the Indians will be attempting to qualify for the regional final with a win over Clear Creek-Amana, who is 13-5 this season and is coming off of a first-round bye.

You can hear the broadcast on radiokmzn.com by clicking on the LIVE GAME CENTRAL button on the right side of the home page. The pregame show will begin around 5:45 with the first kick scheduled for 6 PM next Tuesday, May 31^st.