Samuel and Kibiwott earn All-American Status and Idamadudu Shatters NAIA Championships Record on Day One of NAIA National Championships

MARION, Ind.-- Blessing Samuel and Mercy Kibiwott earn All-American honors on day one while Praise Idamadudu breaks championship record time in the 200 meter to start the NAIA National Championships off strong.

Cumberland earned seven points on day one to sit in 12th place. MidAmerica Nazarene leads the field right now with 29 points after just a few finals events on the first day.

Samuel earned the first points for Cumberland and All-American honors in the long jump finishing in fifth place. She posted a mark of 5.85 meters to land on the podium. Samuel picked up All-American status at the indoor championships and is now a two-time All-American.

Mercy Kibiwott closed the day with a sixth place finish in the 10,000 meters event. Kibiwott came into the event as the No. 15 seed, but performed extremely well to earn the first All-American status of her career. She posted a time of 36:52.96.

Idamadudu qualified for the 200m finals by breaking the NAIA Championship Record in the event. She posted a time of 22.81 seconds to beat the record set by Raheema Westfall from Texas Wesleyan in 2022 at 22.98 seconds. She will run in the finals on Friday at 4:10 p.m

The 4x100m relay team of Doris Mensah, Ifunanya Muoghalu, Samuel, and Praise Idamadudu qualified for Friday's finals posting a third place finish in the prelims. The team won their heat with a time of 45.07 seconds. Indiana Tech was in second at just two-hundredths of a second quicker, 45.05 seconds, and William Carey had the top time at 44.70 seconds.

Mensah followed the relay events by qualifying for the 400m hurdles finals this Friday as well. Mensah posted the eighth-best time out of the nine qualifiers at 1:02.61 and will run on Friday at 3:10 p.m. for a title and All-American honors. .

Muoghalu just missed out on qualifying for the 200m finals. She posted the 10th-best time and the top-nine qualify at 23.83 seconds.

The Phoenix will take on eight events tomorrow starting at 2:00 p.m.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Doris Mensah: Sprints; Sophomore

Mercy Kibiwott: Distance; Junior

Ifunanya Muoghalu: Sophomore

Blessing Samuel: Jumps; Sophomore

Praise Idamadudu: Sprints; Junior

Players Mentioned

Doris Mensah
: Sophomore
: Sprints

Mercy Kibiwott
: Junior
: Distance

Ifunanya Muoghalu
: Sophomore

Blessing Samuel
: Sophomore
: Jumps

Praise Idamadudu
: Junior
: Sprints