Fossum ties personal best at final day of Nationals

Derik Fossum

MITCHELL, S.D. – Dakota Wesleyan Univeristy’s Derik Fossum tied his personal best in the triple jump Saturday during the final day of competition at the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships, which were held at the ETSU Athletic Center in Johnson City, Tenn.

Fossum, a junior from Canton, S.D, equaled his distance that won the GPAC title last month with a jump of 46-08.75. Fossum’s distance is the second-best in school history, trailing only Sherman Cohen’s distance of 47-4.75 in 1974.

With his jump, Fossum placed sixth in Flight 2 at nationals and 13th overall. Wayland Baptist’s Myron Roundtree won the triple jump with a distance of 51-07.00. Dickinson State’s Kurt McCormack was second with a distance of 51-00.00 and Fresno Pacific’s Eugene Vollmer was third, also with a jump of 51-00.00.

Fossum was the final Tiger to compete at nationals, and he turned in the best finish of DWU’s athletes. The women’s 4x400-meter relay team, consisting of Tamika Irvin, Gail McIntyre, Alyssa Christianson and Natalie Wipf, finished 14th in the preliminary race with a time of 4:00.28. Frank Thompson finished in a tie for 17th place in the high jump by clearing 6-06.00. Wipf was 17th in the women’s 200-meter dash prelims with a time of 25.64 and Christianson ran a 25.87 to finish 20th in the same event. Finally, Isaac Van Dyke was 22nd in the men’s 5,000-meter run preliminary with a time of 15:25.93.

Wipf’s time in the 200 was a new school record, while Fossum tied his own mark for second-place all time, and Thompson just missed tying his own school record of 6-08.00.

The national meet marks the end of DWU’s indoor track and field season. The Tigers will take two weeks off to recharge and shift gears, and they’ll open their outdoor track and field season March 20 at the Mount Marty Invite at Yankton, S.D. The NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held May 27-29 in Marian, Ind.