4x800-Meter Relay Team Earns All-American Honors on Day Two of NAIA National Championships

NAIA Outdoor Championship Central

MARION, Ind. – Taylor continued its terrific showing at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships on Thursday, headlined by the 4x800-meter relay team earning All-American Honors.

The Taylor 4x800-meter relay team competed in the finals, and the tandem of Noel VanderWall, Addie Draper, Emersyn Funk, and Abby Mays finished in sixth to secure three more points and NAIA All-American Honors. Mays was fantastic in the final leg, passing three teams to lead the team to the podium with a season-best time of 9:13.25.

Jaynie Halterman took the track for a second-straight day, this time in the 5,000-meter preliminaries. The freshman cruised to a third-place finish in the first heat with a time of 17:38.33 to secure a spot in the finals on Friday.

Mays began her day with a career-best time of 2:11.93 in the 800-meter preliminaries, just half a second off the program record in a terrific race. Unfortunately for the senior, she missed out on qualifying for the finals by less than a tenth of a second and finished 11th.

Draper also competed in the 800-meter preliminaries and finished at 2:28.56 for a 28th-place finish in her debut at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships.

Taylor currently sits in third with 19 points and will look to add to that tally as VanderWall competes in the 1,500-meter finals, and Halterman takes the track in the 5,000-meter finals on the final day of competition at the 2025 NAIA Outdoor Track National Championships.