Season Preview

The Indiana Tech Lady Warriors track team is coming off the most successful season in the program’s history. The ladies won the Indoor and Outdoor WHAC Conference Championships for the first time in school history, finished 6th at both the Indoor and Outdoor Nationals, and broke over 40 school records in the process.

The team loses very few keys member from the astounding season. The biggest losses will come in cross country with Mika Davis, Kara Van Horn, and Alyssa Webb all completing their senior seasons last year. The cross country team will look to senior Veronica Jersey and sophomore Becca Lamb to form a dynamic 1-2 punch. Others that will play significant roles include transfers Allycia Gaffer (IPFW) and Amanda Raley (Glendalle CC), and a group of returning athletes in Domi Elizondo-Smith, Preosha Graham-Coats, Hilary Snyder, Leah Blakemore and Ashley Satterfield.

On the track, two seniors graduated last season in Dina Petridis and Takeisha Hunt. Dina finished her career with a 3rd place finish in the pole vault at Nationals and her 5th All-American. Takeisha was a 1-time All-American in her three year career at Indiana Tech.

Key returning members from last season include 9-time All-American junior Adella King, 3-time All-American junior Abigail Torian, 4-time All-American sophomore Katelyn Lewis, 4-time All-American senior Tiffany Aikin, and a quartet of All-American sophomores in Chloe Brooks, Jamela Kimbrough, Cora Tatum and Kemi Doss. The group will also be joined by multiple-time All-Americans Domi Elizondo-Smith and Preosha Graham-Coats after cross country season. Also, look for increased production from returners Jasmine Miller, All-American Emaryne Watt, Tauren Keels, Stacia Murray, Breonna McKee and Erica Schwering.

With so much talent returning in the short sprints, the women’s class was designed around the middle distance, hurdlers, throws, and jumps. The incoming class has a chance to be the deepest and most talented in the program history. The short sprint group is highlighted by a dynamic Trio of athletes in Shayla France, Jewel Thomas and Samantha Tansil. Samantha redshirted last season at Tech and was a multiple time California Junior College National Champion with career best times of 11.75 and 24.53. Shayla comes to Tech from L’Anse Cruise HS in Michigan and owns a career best 11.90 and 25.37. Jewel finished 3rd and 2nd at the Michigan Division 1 state meet in the 100 over the past two years and owns a career best of 12.05. The middle distance group is loaded with All-State talent. The group includes Chauntiel Smith, career best 56.72 (Ft. Wayne, IN/South Side HS), Kirsten Flake: career best 57.26 (Muncie Central HS, IN), Cherrie Gaines: career best 57.20 (N. Farmington HS, MI), and Shayne Armbristor: career best 58.60 (Rossville HS, MI). New to the hurdler crew are Andrea Ford (Harding HS, IN) who owns a career best 14.82 110h,Kellie Little-John (Southfield HS,MI) who has run 9.14 for the 60 hurdles, Mariama Waheed (Missouri Baptist) who ran a 45.50 as a senior in high school, and Beautiful Brunner who owns a career best of 47.70 in the 300 hurdles.

The field events see two new female pole vaulters in Emily Gresley (Norwell HS, IN) and Taylor Meredyk (Walled Lake central HS, MI). Emily has a PR of 11-0 and Taylor at 10-3. The throws group will see four ladies come in and help to improve one of the few weak spots of last year’s team. Andrea Turner (Fort Wayne South Side HS, IN), Shyarra Sanders (Harding HS, IN), Kirstie Pieper (Southport HS, IN), and Natasha Griffith (Bloomfield HS, CT) will all look to make immediate impacts as freshmen. In the jumps, Ashley Watley (Eastpoint HS, MI), Alea Milligan (Ruskin HS, MO), Rashaundra Upshaw (New haven HS, IN), and Austin Smith (Jeffersonville HS, IN) look to add much needed depth to the jumping events. Finally, newcomer Destiny Patterson (Ben Davis HS, IN) will be competing in the multi events for the ladies.

The women’s team is prepared to improve on their season from a year ago, with a beefed up schedule, great attitudes, and a lot of hard work, plans to challenge powerhouses Oklahoma Baptist, Shorter, Concordia (OR), and Wayland Baptist for the NAIA National Championships this season. The women will open their season with the team’s first ever meet in Fort Wayne at IPFW University on December 3rd.

The men’s team, much like the women’s, returns almost nearly intact from last season. Once again Cross Country seems to be the hardest hit from graduation with Derek Holst and John Wainwight graduating from last year’s squad. The team will be very young and may redshirt some of its upper classmen as the younger athletes learn how to run at the college level. Look for a big year from sophomore Aaron Belcher, senior Micky Nelson, and redshirt freshman Michael Whyde.

The men’s track program only graduates one key contributor in Chris Brautzsch. Chris was a 3-time All-American hurdler for the Warriors and owns the school record in the 60 hurdles, 110 hurdles, and 4 x 100 relay. The returners are lead by a strong group of field event athletes. Junior Aaron Baker finished 2nd in the discus at last year’s national championship and is joined by fellow National qualifying thrower Chadd Keller. Also returning in the field events are 3-time national qualifier and 2-time WHAC high jump champion David Army. The pole vault sees the first of only four seniors on the men’s track squad in Chris Ladd. Lastly, conference champion long jumper Greg Lismon returns as a sophomore to lead a much improved jumping group. Expect big freshmen contributions from shot putter Ninlo Diarrassouba (E. Kentwood HS, MI), who owns a career best of 54-1 in the shot, 6-9.5 high jumper Herb Gary (Ben Davis HS, IN), who is fresh of a USATF National Championship, state long jumper runner up Larry Chain (Southwood HS, IN), Brandon Jarmon (Southfield HS, MI), who owns a career best 6-6 high jump, and vaulter Austin Billington (Pittsford HS, MI) who owns a career best of 14-6.

In the hurdle events 2-time All-American senior captain Zac Chapman returns for his final campaign and leads what could be the best hurdle crew in the NAIA. Chapman is joined by All-American junior Brandon Reynard and the 110 hurdle Conference Champion Devron Harris. The group sees the arrival of several talented freshmen headlined by D’Quan Ruth (Ben Davis HS, IN) who finished 4th at Indiana State meet in the 400 hurdles and owns a career best 4 x 4 split of 47.8, Bahamas native Patrick Bodie who owns a career best 53.5 for the 400 hurdles, state qualifying 110 hurdler Jesse Adams (Leo HS, IN), and multi event talents Evan Morton (Massoponex HS, VA) and Daniel Williams (St. Louis University HS, MO).

The sprints group is lead by returner Dontaey Paige who owns school records in the 200 and 4x100 and finished 8th at the 2011 National Championship in the 60 dash. Sophomores Jonathan Tims and Seth Spangler will lead a strong 800 group, while Matt Kimbrell, BJ Henderson, Dan Haught, and Chris Brown are expected to make major contributions in events from 200-5k. Leading the way for the newcomers is transfer Austen Barnes (Vincennes JC, IN) who returns home after an All-State career at Homestead HS. Austen in joined in the 400 by fellow All-State runner Da’Shawn Parnell (South Bend Washington, IN), Charles White (Ben Davis HS, IN), and transfer Terrence Scott (Kansas City CC, KS) who also returns home to Indiana after an All-State high school career at South Bend Washington. In the short sprints, expect big things from Percy Ford (Northrop HS, IN), All-State 200 runner John Broaden (North central HS, IN), and Jacob Lindley (Leo HS, IN).

Coach Edgar on this year’s team: “We really feel like we have a good group in place here on the men’s team. We have just enough leadership from our seniors and really filled in a lot of holes from last season. We’re stronger and deeper in every event across the board. Our big focus now needs to come on the classroom. We need to make sure first and foremost to take our academics very seriously. Secondly, we need to bond as a group with so many new athletes. Lastly, we’re going to need to increase our work effort over last season. I feel we have the right athletes and have a group in place that gives us a great chance to challenge for our first Men’s WHAC championship. Siena Heights isn’t going to be an easy team to dethrone with all their depth, but if we compete to our potential then we can compete with anyone in the NAIA.”