ARRAN KEARNEY Staff Writer
The first week of March saw Bethel’s greatest ever team performance at the National Indoor Championships, in which a total of eight students competed against the best athletes in the NAIA at Mount Marty University, Yankton, South Dakota. The week's competition got off to an unfortunate start – with the men’s team being disqualified from the 4x800 for breaking from their lane too early. This was really unfortunate, since the four-man squad of Laytham Magana, junior from DeBeque Colo., Isaiah Bartel, first-year from Andover, Mauro Arancibia, senior from Talca, Chile and Nick Morgan, sophomore from Tulsa, Okla. had to break the College record in the event just to qualify. Still, Head Track & Field Coach Kelly Parsley remained positive.
“I am extremely proud of the team for even qualifying, which is a huge achievement in itself for such a young program like ours. The individuals performed way beyond my own expectations,” Parsley said.
First to compete was freshman Isaiah Bartel, in the 1000 meters. Qualifying for this event was a really big ask, especially for an athlete who had only been back for a couple of months after serious injury. Bartel ran the qualifying time in his last meet, at the KCAC Conference Championship in Wichita - where he also clinched the Conference title by two hundredths of a second.
“It was one of the most incredible finishes that I’ve ever seen,” Parsley said.
His time going into the national event placed him as the fastest freshman in the whole country – and he backed this up by qualifying for the national final (again by two hundredths of a second!) This astonishing run of performances was sufficient for Bartel to secure an All–American plaque, which is the first ever to be won by a freshman in the college’s history.
Next to compete was the shotput thrower Austin Cheatham, senior from Newton, who threw a huge personal best at the Conference meet, was determined to claim the All – American spot that had eluded him at the previous national meet. Cheatham produced a professional performance, and claimed eighth spot in the finals.
The final two athletes to compete were the sprinters Braylen Brewer, junior from Seminole, Okla., and Kemroy Cupid, senior from Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Cupid was running in the 60- and 200-meter dash, with Brewer competing in the 400.
“[They’re both] extremely accomplished, talented and hard-working athletes,” Parsley said.
This was borne out by their performances in the final day of the championships. Brewer claimed fourth with a time of 49.17 seconds, whilst Cupid was able to secure two All-American spots, with fifth and seventh in the 60 and 200 respectively. These titles, along with Bartels, were the first to be claimed by Bethel runners at the indoor nationals in nearly fifty years.
The overall team performance was outstanding. Parsley had set a top twenty-five target for the team before the competition, and they achieved this in spite of some pitfalls – finishing twenty-second, which meant that Bethel tied on points with Friends University.
“[This was] a really brilliant accomplishment for this program, and one that shows just how far the Bethel track and field team has come over the last few years,” Parsley said.
