Point Park claims RSC Men's Indoor Track & Field Championship with record points

2/20/2022 12:00:00 AM

LOGAN, Ohio -- Point Park (Pa.) University claimed the team title with a record for points scored at the 2021-22 River States Conference Men's Indoor Track & Field Championship held Saturday, Feb. 19 at the Chieftain Center.

The Pioneers claimed their fourth title in the five-year history of the conference indoor championship. Point Park scored 242 points in this year's meet to break the previous team scoring record of 206 held by Point Park from the first meet in 2017-18.

University of Rio Grande (Ohio) took runner-up honors with 125 points, and Midway (Ky.) University was third with 85. There were 12 schools competing at the Chieftaiin Center, which hosted the championship for the second year in a row.

Daimere Stephens-Stewart, a second-year sprinter and jumper, led the Pioneers and the meet overall with 36 points scored. For that he was named the RSC Men's Indoor Track Athlete of the Year. He medaled four times with three of them gold in the 60 meters, 200 meters and long jump. He also took second in the triple jump. Stephens-Stewart set a meet record in the long jump (6.95 meters) and qualified for NAIA nationals in the 60 meters with a time of 6.89 seconds, just 0.01 off the meet record.

Point Park's Collins Eze earned RSC Men's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year. He had 25 points for second in the meet. That was after winning gold in the triple jump and silver in the high jump. Eze also got into the scoring in the long jump placing fourth and in the 60 meters placing fifth.

Point Park first-year head coach Tim Creamer was voted RSC Men's Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year. The Pioneers had 19 all-conference placements across the 20 events in addition to the record point total for the team.

St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College freshman Thomas Chapman earned RSC Men's Indoor Track & Field Newcomer of the Year. He was second in the 3,000 meters and fourth in the 5,000 meters.

There were a total of four RSC men's meet records that fell on Saturday. In addition to Stephens-Stewart in the long jump, Point Park also had its 4x800 relay team beat its own previous record with a time of 8:08.84 beating the old mark of 8:25.79.

Rio Grande distance runner Cody Booth set a championship record in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:07.05. That beat the previous mark by 10 seconds. IU East's Chance Klipstine took down the record in the 800 meters running 1:58.05. The previous mark of 1:59.84 stood since the first indoor meet in 2017-18.

Also named was the RSC Men's Indoor Track & Field Champions of Character Team. One individual from each school was nominated by their head coach for best displaying the NAIA's five character values of respect, responsibility, integrity, servant leadership and sportsmanship.

The top three finishers in each event and relay earned All-River States Conference honors. The top eight placements in each event earned points for their teams in descending order: 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

2021-22 RSC MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD AWARDS

Men's Track Athlete of the Year -- Daimere Stephens-Stewart, Point Park (Pa.)
Men's Field Athlete of the Year -- Collins Eze, Point Park (Pa.)
Men's Newcomer of the Year -- Thomas Chapman, St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.)
Men's Coach of the Year -- Tim Creamer, Point Park (Pa.)
Team Champion -- Point Park (Pa.), 242 points
Team Runne-up -- Rio Grande (Ohio), 125 points

2021-22 RSC MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONS OF CHARACTER TEAM

School	Name
Alice Lloyd College	Cory Mason
Brescia University	Joseph Tapia
Carlow University	Tyhir Royster
Indiana University East	Matthew Paterson
Indiana University Kokomo	Bryce Jennings
Oakland City University	Roberto Guiterrez
Ohio Christian University	Elijah Newland
Point Park University	Daniel Jacobs
Saint Mary of the Woods College	Luke Frey
University of Rio Grande	Mason Dishong
West Virginia University Institute of Technology	Marcus Vital