Hollands Qualifies for NAIA Indoor Nationals at Oklahoma Christian Invite

This past Saturday Sophomore Sprinter Juanita Hollands competed in her first meet since joining the Bacone College Track program in August. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Hollands transferred to Bacone College to join the track team after running at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi her freshman year. Her time this weekend in the 60 meter dash was the sixth fastest time in the NAIA this year and was good enough to qualify her for the NAIA National Indoor Championship Meet. “Juanita is an extremely talented athlete that has the ability to be very successful in the sport,” notes Bacone College Head Track & Field Coach Shawn Venable.

Also performing well in the meet were sophomore male sprinters CJ McGill and Jamal Murphy, who just missed the NAIA national qualification standard of 7.01 second in the 60 meter dash. McGill’s time of 7.09 seconds won the 60 meter dash while Murphy’s time of 7.12 finished fourth in the field of over 40 runners. Both McGill and Murphy qualified last year for the NAIA Outdoor Championship in the 100 meter dash in addition to being on the nationally qualifying 4x100 meter relay.

Freshmen Emmanuel Birdens and EJ Skinner also excelled in the sprinting events, finishing first and second in the 400 meter dash. Their efforts in the event were about one second off the national qualification standard in the 400 meters. Both runners also ran on the 4x400 meter relay that finished 3rd overall and missed qualify by less than two seconds. “Birdens and Skinner have shown a lot of heart in the fall training and in the last few weeks of racing,” comments Coach Venable. “They are both very competitive and are performing amazingly well in spite of our heavy training loads during the week.”

The Warriors will continue their indoor season next weekend at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, MO.