GENEVA, Ohio, SportingAlert.com – (Complete results) — Sophomore Akela Jones of Oklahoma Baptist dominated the women’s pentathlon highlighting Day 1 of the NAIA Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Championships at the SPIRE Institute Thursday.
In the first of the three-day event, the 2013 Most Valuable Performer set four new NAIA Championship records.
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Jones scored more than 1,000 points in each of her first two events, setting three new event records on way to breaking the championship record by more than 100 (4,153). In the first race of the entire three-day event, Jones shaved 0.07 seconds off the pentathlon 60-meter mark with a winning time of 8.43 seconds. She quickly followed it with another record, this time becoming the first NAIA Championship pentathlon competitor to clear six feet in the high jump.
Not satisfied with the pair of records, the OBU star leapt to a new record of 6.01 meters (19’8 ¾”) in the long jump. Cornerstone’s (Mich.) duo of Brittany Green and Anita Souza finished second and third with 3,730 and 3,437 points, respectively.
“I am doing six events this year, but this is by far the most challenging,” Jones said after her third career individual national championship – she won the high jump and long jump last year. “My coach and I knew exactly what I needed to get in the 800 – my least favorite event – for the NAIA record so that is what I aimed for.”
In the running events, athletes competed in the prelims and semifinals in the 5,000-meters, 4×800-meter relay, 4×400-meter relay and Distance Medley Relay. Sora Klopfenstein of College of Idaho edged 2013 champion Hannah Helker of Oklahoma Baptist for the fastest 5,000 semifinal time of the night (17:27.50), while Oklahoma City’s Peter Koskey topped the men’s field in 14:45.22.