Trojans Lead After Day One of League Championships

Results | Photo Gallery | Crossroads League Championship Central

MARION, Ind. – With the help of victories in three events the Taylor women's track and field team catapulted to the top of the team standings following the first day of action at the Crossroads League Indoor Championships on Friday.

Junior sensation Plenseh-Tay Sakeuh provided one of the best performances of the day for the Purple and Gold as the multi-time All-American notched a victory in the long jump with an NAIA A standard mark of 5.76 meters.

Sakeuh also posted the top mark in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles with an NAIA B standard time of 9.16 to punch her ticket into Saturday's finals in the event. The Lapel, Indiana native also earned a spot in the 60-meter dash finals with the second-fastest time in the preliminaries at 7.94. Fellow junior Sarah Robinson will join Sakeuh in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles after earning the fourth seed with a preliminary time of 9.26 and the 60-meter dash with the seventh best time of 8.15.

The Trojans also registered a victory in the distance medley relay as the TU squad of Alex Berends, Lilly Walter, Rachel Blagg, and Sarah Harden raced to a time of 12:53.32 to score ten points for TU.

Taylor's distance group continued to tack on the points in the 5,000-meters as freshman Livy Schroder posted a victory with a time of 18:53.69.

The TU 4x800-meter relay team of Rachel Blagg, Anna Souzis, Anna Craig, and Taylor Bluemel clocked an NAIA A standard time of 9:41.62 to finish in second place.

In addition to Sakeuh's victory in the long jump the Trojans also scored six points in the weight throw as junior Brianna Jordahl tallied a third place finish with a mark of 14.27 meters.

The freshman duo of Andrea Kempf and Walliscia McKinney also helped the cause for the Trojans with third and fourth place finishes, respectively, in the pentathlon. Kempf tallied 2,227 points while McKinney collected 1,869 points.

Junior Margie Crosby added a sixth place finish in the 600-meters with a time of 1:45.76.

With 58 points after Friday's action the Trojans hold a slim lead over Marian (55) while Indiana Wesleyan is in third at 45 and Bethel is in fourth at 32.

The Indoor Crossroads League Championships will continue on Saturday with the heptathlon beginning at 10:00 am while field events are slated to start at 1:00 pm and running events will begin shortly thereafter at 1:20 pm.