Beatty Bags High Jump National Title
Joining an elite club at Central College, men’s high jumper Sam Beatty (senior, Mount Pleasant) won the national title at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday.
It’s the eighth indoor national title for the Dutch men’s track and field program. It’s the third high jump title for a Central male indoors, joining Ethan Miller in 2011 and Cale Van Genderen in 2005. As a school, Central now has 37 total individual national titles across all sports.
Beatty was one of two competitors to clear the bar at 6 feet, 9 inches after eight athletes bowed out at that bar. Beatty and Samuel Hetrick of Penn State University – Behrend both missed all three attempts at 6-10.25, but Hetrick had one more miss at lower bars than Beatty, giving the Central senior the win by tiebreaker.
In the team standings, the Dutch men finished in a tie for 20th with 10 points. The women tied for 38th with four points.
In other action for the Dutch Saturday, Lucas Heitz (senior, Adel, ADM HS) moved up seven spots to No. 11 on the second and final day of the men’s heptathlon, reaching 4,751 points. He had top-eight marks against the field in all three of Saturday’s events.
Coming off her anchor leg of the All-American distance medley relay squad Friday night, Caroline McMartin (junior, Pella) was 13th in the women’s 3,000-meter run with a time of 9 minutes, 54.16 seconds.
The Dutch start the outdoor season on March 31 with the Washington University Distance Carnival in St. Louis, Missouri.
Central Softball Offense Erupts in Another Arizona Sweep
The pitching staff was in command again for the Central College softball team but the bats sprang to life Saturday as well in another sweep team at the Tucson Invitational Games Saturday. The Dutch battered RIT (N.Y.) 13-0 in five innings, then came back with a dominant 14-3 victory over the University of Redlands (Calif.), and both games were heard live on 92.1 KRLS.
Central (7-1) pounded out 22 hits in the two games, while even flashing some power as catcher Madison Farrington (senior, Marshalltown, East Marshall HS) belted the team’s first home run of the season and second baseman Haley Bach (sophomore, Council Bluffs, Lewis Central HS) ripped a pair of doubles. Yet as usual, the spark that lit the offensive flames was again the Central running game. Center fielder Emma Johnson (senior, Davenport, Assumption HS) swiped home to put Central on top in the first inning against Redlands, then two innings later, barreled to the plate from second base on a bunt single that third baseman Franie Burnett (junior, Ankeny, Centennial HS) pushed through a vacated infield hole to the outfield grass. The Dutch pilfered nine bases on the day, including three by Johnson.
Farrington was a big part of the productive day from that bottom third of the lineup, with three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored against Redlands. Right fielder Emma Jensen (sophomore, Earlham), the No. 7 hitter, had three hits on the day and shortstop Carson Fisk (senior, Grinnell) had a hit and scored twice from the No. 9 spot.
Bach, the leadoff hitter, had four hits, scored five runs and drove in four. First baseman Megan Stuhr (junior, Sigourney) had four hits and pumped up her team-leading batting average to .524.
The Dutch also profited from five errors by RIT (0-1), which was making its season debut after leaving its snowy upstate New York home. And a more game-tested Redlands squad (8-5) committed four errors. Central was also the beneficiary of an unfortunate break as a third-inning line drive to the shoulder knocked Redlands starting pitcher Brianna Garcia out of the game, although she appeared to escape serious injury.
The Dutch pitchers were challenged, as Redlands hammered three solo home runs, but they held their opponents otherwise scoreless the rest of the day. Morgan Schaben (senior, Portsmouth, Harlan HS), who was ticketed for spot duty after shouldering most of the load last season, has nonetheless seen plenty of action in the early going, appearing in seven of the team’s eight games thus far and throwing 16.2 innings with a 0.84 earned run average.
She started and got the win against RIT, tossing three scoreless innings. She allowed two hits and two walks while fanning two in improving to 2-1. Schaben allowed a run on two hits in two innings of the nightcap.
Senior Sydni Huisman (Treynor) upped her record to 4-0 with the win over Redlands but did allow two of the Bulldogs’ three homers while surrendering five hits and two walks. She struck out one.
Freshman Emma Beck (Holland, Grundy Center HS) got the final three outs against Redlands while yielding one hit.
There’s another change to the Sunday schedule. Central will still play the University of Wis.-La Crosse at 11 a.m. (1 p.m. Central Time) but then will take on Webster University (Mo.) for the second time at 1:30 p.m. The Dutch blanked Webster (1-7) 1-0 in the season opener at Edwardsville, Illinois Feb. 25. It will be the 11th time Central and Wis.-La Crosse have met in Tucson, although the most recent meeting was in Pella in 2019. The Eagles (3-3) have won four of the last five matchups and lead the series 8-6.
Dutch Women Get First Tennis Win of the Spring
The bottom of the Central College women’s tennis lineup propelled the team to 4-3 victory over Baker University (Kan.) Saturday afternoon.
Central (5-8) was victorious at No. 2 and 3 doubles, giving the team the singular doubles point playing in the NAIA scoring format. Then Central got it done at Nos. 4, 5, 6 and singles to complete the win. Becca Vala (sophomore, Omaha, Neb., Elkhorn HS) and Brianna Lindstrom (junior, North Aurora, Ill., West Aurora HS) both went 2-0 for the Dutch. Vala was a 6-2, 6-0 winner at No. 5 singles while Lindstrom won 7-5, 6-3 at No. 6. Vala and Jenna Mitsuko Mahoney (freshman, Misawa, Japan, Robert D. Edgren HS) won 6-4 at No. 2 doubles while Lindstrom and Jenna Hernandez (junior, Slater, Ballard HS) won 6-2 at No. 3 doubles. Alli Kreider (junior, Norwalk) needed three sets to get by Cambrie Frame 3-6,6-0, 1-0 in the No. 3 singles slot. Central did all of this without the services of No. 2 singles player Madi Whalen (freshman, Kansas City, Mo., Park Hill HS) who was away from the team to attend to a personal issue.
The next match for the Dutch is on Tuesday, March 21 at 4 p.m. in Pella against Concordia University (Neb.).
William Jewell Wins over Central Men’s Tennis
The Central College men’s tennis team split the six singles matches against William Jewell College (Mo.) but yielded the doubles point in a 4-3 loss Saturday afternoon. Central (3-6) fell 7-0 against the Cardinals (8-9), an NCAA Division II squad, in March of 2022.
Nick Scott (junior, Fort Benton, Mont., Great Falls Central Catholic HS) was Central’s highest-placed singles winner, mounting a comeback to win at No. 2 singles 3-6, 6-4, 1-0. Ayden Fletcher (sophomore, Waukee) was also a 6-2, 6-4 winner at No. 5 singles and Matthew DenAdel (senior, Ankeny, Centennial HS) won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 6 singles.
Central hosts Northwestern College next Saturday at 1 p.m.