Williams finishes ninth at NCCAA National Championships

Bourbonnais, IL - Junior Sara Williams (Wellsboro, PA) finished ninth in the shot put at the National Christian College Athletic Association indoor track and field championships, held at Olivet Nazarene University in suburban Chicago. She led a contingent of nine Geneva athletes at the championships and the men′s 4 x 200 team of Cameron Unrath (freshman, Wexford, PA), Jacob Mellinger (sophomore, Leetonia, OH), Ed Schuster (junior, Winter Springs, FL), and Josh Guiser (junior, Fayette City, PA) set a college record in the 4 x 200 relay with a time of 1:33.81, finishing 10^th.

"The NCCAA is mostly made up of NCAA Division II schools with scholarship athletes so we have tended not to do well there in the past," said Coach Brian Yowler. "But these were our nine best athletes and they weren′t intimidated by the competition, they used it to their advantage and set personal bests in their event and set a school record in the relay.

"I was pleasantly surprised and this is nice preparation for the PAC Championships this week."

Also finishing in the top 20 were Alayna Merkle* (senior, Chambersburg, PA) who finished 14^th in the mile run with a time of 5:28.80; Clay Joseph (freshman, Milton, GA), who finished 15^th in the triple jump with a distance of 11.75 meters; and Anna Kluitenberg (junior, Pittsburgh, PA) was 18^th in the 5000 meter run with a time of 20:01.06.

Both the men′s and women′s teams return to action Thursday at the Presidents′ Athletic Conference Championships.

Geneva College invites students to accept the challenge of an academically excellent, Christ-centered education. Offering nearly 40 undergraduate majors, Adult Degree Programs with fully online and campus-based options, and seven graduate degrees, Geneva has programs that place students at the forefront of higher learning. Adhering to the inerrancy of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God′s word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today′s world.

* Alayna Merkle pictured above