After competing in the first outdoor track and field meet of the season on March 20-21 at the Rhodes College Invitational in Memphis, Tenn., coach Steve Guymon said he is pleased with the depth of the program and expects to have a well-rounded men’s team this season.
“We’ve had good field events at times and we’ve had good sprints at times, but we haven’t really had a good core group where we are good in each of the four phases of track competition,” Guymon said. “This is the first time in my 13 years of coaching here.”
The Rhodes Invitational hosted 34 teams and had more than 1,000 athletes in the meet comprised of NCAA DI, II, III and NAIA competition. Harding sent 33 athletes to the meet.
Junior Josh Syrotchen got off to a good start after having a standout freshman season, which included breaking the 17-year-old school record and finishing fourth in the nation for discus.
He earned a second place finish at the Rhodes Invitational in discus with his throw of 177 feet, 4 inches. With this throw, Syrotchen reached the NCAA provisional mark for discus and now ranks second in NCAA DII for the longest discus throw thus far this season.
“I have had this set goal since high school of wanting to throw 200 feet,” Syrotchen said. “When I hit 177 feet this early in the season, it went through my mind that it could possibly happen this year.”
Another highlight of the meet was a first place finish by the men’s 4×400-meter relay team of freshman Jared Parker, juniors Kevin Naceanceno, Trevor Holloway and senior Dillon Bagwell, who finished with a time of 3 minutes, 15.88 seconds.
Naceanceno and the 4×400 team have high goals for this season after coming close to qualifying for nationals last season.
“As individuals, none of us quarter-milers are good enough to go to nationals, but as a team last year we had the 15th best time in the nation prior to nationals and only the top 14 4×400 teams compete at nationals, so we only missed it by one,” Naceanceno said. “The goal is to make it in the top 14 and get to nationals this year.”
The men’s and women’s track and field teams will resume action in a home dual against Southern Arkansas University (SAU) on Saturday, April 4.
Guymon said he plans for this battle to become a tradition and rivalry over the following years.
“We will combine both the men’s and women’s scores and the team with the most overall points will win the traveling trophy,” Guymon said.
Guymon commissioned freshman distance runner Lawson Belcher to design and create the traveling trophy for the dual with SAU.
“As for the appearance of the trophy, if everything goes according to plan it’s going to be made of wood, Arkansas shaped, and it will incorporate the mascots of Harding and SAU,” Belcher said. “Beyond that, you’ll just have to come out and see on Saturday.”
