Eight Grizzlies hit NJCAA national qualifying standards Friday afternoon while three Grizzlies won their events in the first indoor meet of the season at the Shocker Prelude. 

The Butler sprinting core dominate the meet as the Butler women had five in the top seven claiming the top four finishes in the finals. Linesha Thompson led the way running a 7.56 while teammates Kaleb McDonald (7.60) and Toshel Goffel (7.75) were close behind. Jennifer Godfrey also posted a sub 8 second time crossing the line at 7.92 and Shawnakay Peart finished in 6^th with a time of 8.07.

On the men's side, five Grizzlies made the finals and finished 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, 5^th, and 7^th. Xavier Atkins impressed the Heskett Center with his 6.74 finals time. He was edged by teammate Caleb Jackson who crossed at 6.75. Jeremy McDowell placed 4^th with a 6.80, Ollie McGee finished 5^th at 6.81 and Dylan Swain ran a 7.03 placing him 7^th.

Linesha Thompson currently holds the fastest time in the NJCAA this season and Xavier Atkins has posted the second fastest time on the year.

Jyria Smith ran the only sub-minute 400m winning the event with a 59.81. Teammate Kaleb McDonald was on her hip pocket finishing second with a 1:00.01. The Grizzlies also claimed 4^th place with Ann Dangha (1:02.69), 5^th Toshel Goffe (1:02.72), 6^th Morgan Cossey (1:02.73) and 7^th Jennifer Godfrey (1:04.80.

"I think we did pretty well," said head coach Dustin Mettler. "We use this meet as a rust buster but at the same time, if we can get qualifiers, we won't complain about that. We want to see where we are at and what we can work on to improve in the next meet."

The Grizzlies scored really well in the sprints but struggled to find points in the field events.

"We didn't do very well in the field events today but we have a really talented group of athletes in those events and I look forward to what they will do moving forward," said Mettler.

Grizzlies who hit national qualifying marks:

Linesha Thompson- 60m dash

Kaleb McDonald- 60m dash

Xavier Atkins- 60m dash

Jeremy McDowell- 60m dash

Men's 4x400 Relay (Calen Ragsdale, Judah Taylor, Cardet Bienvenue, Jeremy McDowell)

Other top finishers at the meet were:

Women:

Brianne Watkins- 6^th  - Triple Jump 9.37 (30'9")

Taoni Reynold- 3^rd – 60m hurdles 9.62

Michelle Sanchez- 7^th - 3000m 11:12.94

Men:

Robert Richardson- 8^th - Long Jump 6.20m (20'4 ¼")

Robert Richardson- 2^nd - Triple jump 13.47 (45'2 ¼")

Ceetyn Anderson- 4^th - Triple jump 13.02 (42'8 ¾")

Tard Smith- 7^th - Triple jump 12.89 (42'3 ½")

Nick Lowe- 6^th - Shot put 13.72m (45'0 ¼")

Baylor Hendren- 3^rd - High jump 1.90 (6'2 ¾")

Ronaldo Griffiths- 3^rd - 400m 50.82

Brandon Alexander-Grittens- 4^th - 51.08

Phillip Armbrister- 4^{th -} 600m 1:24.07

Obadia Tanui- 4^th - 3000m 8:59.88

Tarik Xavier- 6^th - 3000m 9:22.15

4x400m Relay 2^nd - 3:19.39 (conversion time)

Full list of results - HERE