MARION, Ind. – The Vincennes University Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams put together another great weekend at the 2024 Indiana Little State Championships hosted by Indiana Wesleyan University.
The busy weekend actually got started on Thursday when VU sophomore and 2024 Indoor Heptathlon National Champion Olegs Kozjakovs made the short trip up to Terre Haute to take part in a two-day Decathlon at the 2024 Gibson Invitational.
Kozjakovs had a great showing in the events, competing against NCAA Division I athletes, taking the top spot in the shot put, discus and pole vault events to claim the top spot in the Decathlon with a total of 6,778 points.
“It was a long, cold weekend but we managed to accomplish a lot with the team,” VU Head Track and Field Coach Marty Rogier said. “The conditions, again, were cold and windy. I thought our team still competed very well.”
“Olegs got things started Thursday and Friday by winning the decathlon at the ISU Gibson Invite,” Rogier added. “The goal was just to survive and qualify in this 10-event competition. He had a steady performance with nothing great but nothing bad. His 6,778 points was still good for second on the National list and very close to a school record.”
The rest of the VU Track and Field teams headed up to Marion Friday for the first day of the two-day Little State Championships, where the Blazers again had a very good showing.
The VU men’s team scorers were led off by sprinters Olamipo Ladipo, 2024 Indoor 600 meter National Champion Desroy Jordan, Tumaini Skinner and Malik Ferdinand.
Ladipo and Jordan claimed a one-two finish in the 200 meter sprint, with Ladipo edging out Jordan with a time of 21.83 seconds, to Jordan’s 21.87 seconds.
Skinner and Ferdinand also claimed a one-two finish, this time in the 400 meter dash, with Skinner taking the top spot with a time of 49.93 and Ferdinand close behind at 50.43.
On the distance side, sophomore Isaac Stanford (Flora, Ill.) got the scoring started for the Blazers by taking third in the 800 meters with a time of 1:55.77 and a second-place finish in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:56.45.
Freshman Cody Noel (Hebron, Ind.) took home fourth place in the 10k, crossing the finish line with a final time of 33:28.64.
Freshman Clinton Laguerre kept the action going in the 400 meter hurdles, finishing with a time of 54.08 seconds, good for second place and a National Qualifier.
Freshman Brahym Sakka (Tunisia) placed fourth in the 3000 meter steeplechase with a time of 9:40.00 before teaming up with sophomores Matthew Gray (Washington, Ind.) and Isaac Stanford, as well as freshman Tanner Spence (Carmi, Ill.) to take seventh in the 4×800 relay with a time of 7:57.43.
The VU relay team of Tumaini Skinner, Clinton Laguerre, Olamipo Ladipo and Desroy Jordan closed out the VU scoring by taking third in the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:24.43.
The Vincennes University men’s team took home second place as a team at the Little State Championships after scoring a total of 76 points over the weekend meet.
“We then moved to Indiana Wesleyan with the rest of the team to compete in the Little State Championships,” Rogier said. “This is a really great meet and I learned that this is the second longest running invitational in the United States. It’s the one meet we focus on trying to score as a team and not so much on individual performance.”
“The men had a good day
