England, Mangas, Marable Earn All-American on Day 2 at National Championship
Birmingham, Ala. – The University of Findlay men's and women's track and field teams had five athletes competing on Friday, March 12 at the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships in Birmingham, Alabama. Junior Brooke Mangas, junior Xavier Marable, sophomore Josh Verhoff, sophomore Lindsey Kluesener, and sophomore Morgan England all had events on the second of three days at the Birmingham Crossplex with the top DII athletes in the nation.
Women's pole vault is the only event for Findlay this season with multiple athletes competing at the national level as Kluesener and England each earned their way to the national meet. Kluesener, who earned all-American in the event last season, began the event clearing 3.80m (12'5.5") on her first attempt. She would fail all three attempts at 3.95m and finish 12th.
Teammate Morgan England, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Champion, cleared both 3.80m and 3.95m on her first attempt. She later flew over 4.05m (13'3.5") on her second attempt which put her in third place. Only one athlete cleared the next height and England secured bronze in the event to become Findlay's second pole vault all-American of all time, the other being Kluesener.
Also earning all-American status on Friday was junior Brooke Mangas in the women's high jump. Mangas flew over 1.63m on her first attempt and used two attempts, each, to clear 1.68m and 1.71m (5'07.25"). Her final jump put her in sixth which was good enough to earn all-American making her just the third female at Findlay to become an all-American in indoor high jump, joining Lydia Guagenti (2015) and Beth Baldridge (2001 & 2002).
Junior Xavier Marable participated in the prelims of the men's 400m, an event in which he is a two-time all-American. Marable, running in the third heat, ran a time of 47.99 which placed him in the eighth and final spot for tomorrow's 400m final. It is one of the most tightly contested events of the meet as all eight spots in the final are separated by three-tenths of a second. Marable's time does give him all-American status in the event for the third time and tomorrow at 3:20, he will attempt to become Findlay's first-ever national champion in the men's 400m.
Also competing was sophomore Josh Verhoff who took to the track in the men's 200m. Bad luck struck Verhoff as the G-MAC's 200m champion fell victim to a pulled hamstring causing him to trot across the line more than a minute after his competitors.
The third and final day of competition will be tomorrow, March 13 as Marable along with senior Martin Etsey (triple jump) will be competing.