Reuwsaat brings home gold from national championships

The Chadron State track and field team concluded its strong indoor season with nine athletes traveling to the NCAA D-II Indoor Track and Field Championships at Pittsburgh State University, Pittsburgh, Kansas. Long jumpers Stachia Reuwsaat, junior of Rapid City, South Dakota, and Damarcus Simpson, sophomore of Lafayette, Georgia, and led the way finishing first and second, respectively in their events.

On the women’s side, six athletes traveled to the national meet. Four of them being in the 4×400 meter relay. Reuwsaat paved the way for the weekend, taking home first place honors in the long jump. She jumped 20 feet, 4 1/2 inches on her fifth attempt to seal her first national championship. Reuwsaat’s second and third best jumps of 20-1 and 19-8 1/2 also helped her lead nearly the entirety of the event.

She is CSC’s first female individual champion in an NCAA sport.

“Stachia deserved this,” Head Coach Brad Gamble said. “She worked hard all (indoor) season to get here and it finally paid off.”

Reuwsaat’s performance would not be the only memorable one. Shelby Bozner, senior of Rock Springs, Wyoming, finished second in the women’s pentathlon scoring 3,899 points, a school record. Bozner scoring high in every event on Saturday. She won the 60 meter hurdle to open things up and finished second in the 800.

Salcia Slack, graduate of Kingston, Jamaica, of New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, was the only on to beat Bozner.

The women’s 4×400 relay team placed seventh running 3 minutes, 45.77 seconds. The time is a season best and indoor school record. This group is the first women’s relay team to earn All-American honors in the program history. The team consisted of Bozner; Nikki Glasson, senior of Wheatland, Wyoming; Kelsy Wood, junior of Hemingford; and Tiffany Thomas, senior of Kingston, Jamaica.

On the men’s side, three athletes competed at the national meet but Simpson would be the only one to score and bring home All-America honors. The other athletes who qualified were Zerek Jones, senior of La Junta, Colorado, in the 800; and Andre Woodson, junior of Sacramento, California, in the 60.

Jones ran the 800 in 1:52.28, finishing 12th in the nation in D-II indoors. His time was just three hundredths of a second behind to earn a spot in the finals and guarantee All-American honors.

Simpson mirrored his 2015 performance at the indoor national meet placing second in the long jump and sixth in the 60 for the second straight year. Simpson’s long jump did not come together until finals. Coming into the weekend he was ranked No. 2 nationally, but going into finals was seeded No. 4. Simpson jumped his personal best on his sixth and final jump, going 25-11, putting him in the lead. Simpson seemed like the winner, until the last jump by Sedeekie Edie, sophomore of Kingston, Jamaica, of Lincoln University, Lincoln, Missouri. Edie leapt 26-1 3/4 to take home first place honors.

Simpson fared well in the 60 running 6.751 on Friday to assure himself a spot in the finals on Saturday. Simpson ran 6.79 the next day to earn sixth for the second straight year. Simpson now has five career All-American performances on his resume as an Eagle.

In final team scoring, the women finished 10th with 20 points, a program record. The men totaled 11 points to finish 20th.

The Eagles will open their outdoor season on Thursday, March 24 at Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota, and Friday, March 25 at Colorado School of Mines, Golden.