Gidabudy, Hargrove And Slack High Scorers At DII Championships

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Tiffin couldn’t have won a national title without Lamar Hargrove.

Adams State wouldn’t have been as close as it was to a crown if Sydney Gidabudy wasn’t on his ‘A’ game.

And Salcia Slack was arguably the women’s team from New Mexico Highlands in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Gidabudy, Hargrove and Slack were the High-Point Scorers from the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships this past weekend. Both men totaled 20 points, while Slack tallied 23.

Hargrove, a junior from Cincinnati, Ohio, continued his incredible season in a big way.

After finishing runner-up in the 60 meters to Academy of Art’s Mobolade Ajomale, who tied the fifth fastest time ever recorded in DII (6.57), Hargrove edged Ajomale for the 200 title. Hargrove set a DII record of 20.81, narrowly beating Ajomale (20.82) to the line.

Later in the meet, Hargrove joined forces with three teammates to finish second in the 4×400 relay. It was those eight points that sent the Dragons to their first championship in program history.

Gidabudy entered NCAAs as the top-seeded athlete at 3000 and 5000. He didn’t disappoint.

The freshman from Orange, California swept the distance titles to hand the Grizzlies 20 points. Gidabudy won both races by a little more than one second.

Slack was entered in four events this past weekend — the 60-meter hurdles, long jump, triple jump and penathlon. If she reached the finals of the hurdles, Slack would have competed nine times in two days.

As it turns out, Slack only went head to head with other athletes eight times (failed to make the hurdle finals), but that was more than enough. Slack opened her weekend with a title in the pentathlon (4172 points, narrowly missing the meet record of 4193), captured the triple-jump title and finished sixth in the long jump.

The Cowgirls scored 23 points at NCAAs and all of those came from Slack.