Merryman Finishes 3rd in 100m at NAIA Championships
(Asheville, NC) – On the third and final day of the NAIA Championships on Friday, Hastings came away with an All-American third place medal for junior Kaiden Merryman in the 100m, adding to his 100m All-American award from the indoor track season.
(Asheville, NC) – On the third and final day of the NAIA Championships on Friday, Hastings came away with an All-American third place medal for junior Kaiden Merryman in the 100m, adding to his 100m All-American award from the indoor track season. Hastings finished 40th out of 88 teams.
Merryman came away with a third-place award in the 100m finals, running through the line at the 10.40 mark. He finished .12 seconds behind first and .02 seconds behind second, while beating out fourth place by .02 seconds in an incredibly close race.
In the 100m prelims on Wednesday, Merryman crossed the finish line first in his heat to qualify for the finals, finishing second overall, and ending the race with a time of 10.38.
In the decathlon on Wednesday, junior Rafer Severson was seventh after day one with 3587 points at the halfway point. He was sixth in the shot put (12.25m), seventh in the 100m (11.23), eighth in the high jump (1.91m), 10th in the 400m (51.26), and 12th in the long jump (6.40m).
After the final five events of the decathlon on Thursday, Severson finished 10th at 6527 points, setting a personal best and keeping him in second place in school history. He was fifth in the discus (37.72), seventh in the javelin (44.42m), eighth in the 1500m (4:49.31), 11th in the pole vault (4.15m), and 16th in the 110m hurdles (17.90).
The 4x800m relay team of sophomore Parker Graves, sophomore Evan Struss, senior Deshawn Burks, and senior Tyler Salter finished 14th in the prelims at 7:33.24 on Wednesday, breaking their own school record by over seven seconds. The Broncos were fourth in their heat and three seconds from a heat victory, while being four seconds from a finals qualifying time amongst the last four qualifying times that did not win their heat.
Hastings wraps up their 2025-26 season and will begin making preparations for next season.
