Kurtis Brondyke March 9, 2009

Central's Brondyke, Miller to national meet

PELLA—Central College’s Kurtis Brondyke (sophomore, Clinton) and Ethan Miller (freshman, Seymour) have received spots in the first-ever pentathlon at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The meet will be contested Friday and Saturday at Rose-Hulman Univ. in Terre Haute, Ind. The pentathlon starts at 9 a.m. Saturday with the 55-meter hurdles, followed by the long jump at 9:45 a.m., the shot put at approximately 11:15 a.m., the high jump at 12:30 p.m. and the 1,000-meter run, tentatively set for 2:45 p.m.

Brondyke and Miller are Central’s lone qualifiers in the meet. Both topped the provisional qualifying standard at the Central Last Chance Pentathlon in H.S. Kuyper Fieldhouse Friday evening. Brondyke won the meet with 3,590 points, the fourth-best total in Division III this year. Miller followed with 3,440 and was the last entrant in the 12-man NCAA pentathlon field to make the cut. Obinna Nwanna of Case Western Reserve Univ. (Ohio) tops the field with his qualifying score of 3,723.

First-year coach Joe Dunham said because both Dutch athletes are new to the event, they could easily surpass last week’s point totals.

“We’re really excited that Kurtis and Ethan are in the national meet,” he said. “It’s always impressive to do so, especially as a freshman and sophomore. I’m excited to see what they put together. It seems like they improve a lot every week.”

The top eight finishers receive all-America honors, a designation within the grasp of both athletes, Dunham said.

“It depends if they come ready to compete,” Dunham said. “They’re going against the best athletes in Division III. But we’re not asking them to do anything they’re not capable of doing.”

Brondyke is in his first full season of indoor track and field after competing in football and basketball last year. He went on to earn all-America recognition in the outdoor season as a freshman, placing fourth nationally in the long jump.

Central had three other provisional national meet qualifiers that didn’t make the NCAA indoor field. Matt Graber (sophomore, Newton) threw 51-feet, 6.5-inches in the shot put and missed by just 2.5 inches. Rachel Boeke (senior, Cedar Rapids, Jefferson HS) threw 43-0.25, 5.25 inches short of qualifying. The 4x400-meter relay team of Jill Ziskovsky (sophomore, Dallas Center, Dallas Center-Grimes HS), Emily Teas (sophomore, Indianola), Rachelle Tipton (junior, Newton) and Amanda Mosinski (sophomore, Packwood, Pekin HS) ran an adjusted time of 3:59.99 at Iowa State Saturday, 2.32 seconds shy of the final spot.