Banner day for Skipper
Sarah Skipper keeps pushing her ceiling higher. The Jamestown College senior standout placed second in the pentathlon on Thursday at the NAIA National Indoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio. Skipper shattered her own school record by 108 points, which she set two weeks ago at the Dakota Athletic Conference meet. Her second-place finish of 3,644 earned her All-American honors for the first time. “She really excelled,” said JC women’s coach Jim Clark. “She never took an event off. She was excellent in everything.”
Sarah Skipper keeps pushing her ceiling higher.
The Jamestown College senior standout placed second in the pentathlon on Thursday at the NAIA National Indoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio.
Skipper shattered her own school record by 108 points, which she set two weeks ago at the Dakota Athletic Conference meet. Her second-place finish of 3,644 earned her All-American honors for the first time.
“She really excelled,” said JC women’s coach Jim Clark. “She never took an event off. She was excellent in everything.”
She closed really strong, placing third in the long jump with a mark of 18-0 1/2 and then was third again in the 800 with a lifetime best of 2:20.96, vaulting her from fourth in the standings into second.
“She was really good in the big scoring events,” Clark said. “She had another great day.”
Her 3,644 points trailed only 4-time pentathlon Natasha Miller of Biola (Calif.), who broke her own NAIA record with 4,032 points.
Skipper placed third in the high jump (5-4 1/4), eighth in the 60 hurdles (9.24) and ninth in the shot put (31-5 1.4).
Breanna Leslie of Azusa-Pacific, Calif., was third (3,644) and Doane’s Jillan Ourada (3,541) fourth. Briana Wubben (3,537) of Dordt and Amy Boyer (3,490) of Cornerstone rounded out the top six to earn All-American honors.
She’s not done either. She competes in the long jump today and the high jump Saturday.
The Jimmies also qualified for the finals in the distance medley relay.
Aleona Reyes started the 1200 meter leg in a time of 3:46. She passed it off to Marissa Curry, who had just ran a leg in the Jimmies 4 x 400 team. Madey Hornung ran a strong 2:20 flat in the 800 leg before Katie Conlon ran the 1600 in 5:04 as they earned the final spot in Saturday’s final by edging out the ninth-place finisher by 900ths of a second with a time of 12:08.
The Jimmies have placed fourth in the DMR in each of the last two national indoor meets.
“All four girls ran really well,” Clark said. “We got into the last two finals with times of 12:19 (in 2009) and 12:17 last year and 12:08 just barely got us in this year.”
The Jimmies 1600 relay team did not advance, but Katie Zent, Ariel Edwards, Curry and AnnaLiesa Fauth teamed for a new school record in the race in a time of 3:57.28, which was more than six seconds better than the old mark.
“It was the best Day 1 at a national meet I can remember,” said Clark, who has been in charge for 33 years.
Josh Ewalt had a rough day in the heptathlon, mainly because he got the stomach flu.
“He’s sicker than a dog,” Clark said. “He still competed hard, but he just doesn’t feel very well.”
He was in 13th place overall after the first five events — 60 meters, long jump, shot put and high jump. Results were not available at press time.
Ewalt concludes the heptathlon today with 60 hurdles, pole vault and 1,000.
Also today, Curry runs in the 600 semifinals and Conlon does the same in the 3,000 where she enters No. 1 on the performance list.
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com
Tags: sports, track, jimmies, skipper, naia
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