JBU track athletes compete at nationals
BROOKINGS, S.D. — John Brown University’s freshman Matthew Cook and the men’s 3,200-meter relay team competed in the semifinals of the NAIA National Indoor Track and Field Championships inside the Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex on Thursday and Friday, March 2-3.
On Thursday, the 4x800 meter relay team entered the preliminary round seeded 19th of 24 programs with a season-best mark of 7 minutes, 50.56 seconds, set at Texas Tech University’s Matador Qualifier on Feb. 17.
The quartet of sophomore Drew Birnbaum, sophomore Andrew Janzen, senior Jadin Whiting and Cook as the anchor posted a program record time of 7:50.26, but were unable to qualify for the finals, finishing 15th overall – a four-spot improvement over its seed time.
The following day (March 3), Cook took to the track to run his second 800 meters of the weekend in the 800 meter preliminaries, where the native Costa Rican entered with the 19th fastest time of 1:55.13 in the field of 20 participants.
While not qualifying for the 800 meter finals, Cook boasted a time of 1:56.11 to finish in the 14th slot – five spots higher than his seed mark.
The 2023 indoor track and field season produced a series of firsts – including Cook as the first freshman to qualify for the national meet, in addition to John Brown producing the program’s first relay team to make its way to Brookings.
With the indoor season now at a close, the Golden Eagles return to action on March 31 to open the outdoor season at the Friends (Kan.) Spring Open, held at the Adair-Austin Stadium in Wichita, Kan. The meet will run through April 1.