Some parents always want to send their children outdoors to play. It’s a good bet that wasn’t the case in

the Roberts household.

On Mar. 12 at the NCAA Division II indoor track and field championships in Albuququerque, N.M.,

Ashland University senior Kurt Roberts won his third indoor championship in the shot put. Very few

throwers in the country are as rock solid indoors as Roberts. A year ago, he established the meet record in

the shot put with a throw of 64-11.5. On March 12, he led the field with a throw of 63-11

That effort put some distance between Roberts and Grand Valley State’s Daniel Vanek, who was

second. Vanek’s best throw measured 60-11.25.

Roberts was part of an AU men’s team that finished second in the country. That’s the highest finish

indoors for the men in school history. It comes on the heels of the women’s team finishing in a tie for

second at last year’s indoor national championship meet.

On Saturday, the AU men also received a bronze medal from junior Tom Scott in the 800. Scott ran the

race in 1:52.34. Augustana’s Aduo Omot won the race in 1:51.20 and Metro State’s Shawn Lindbom was

second at 1:51.44.

AU’s 4X4 relay finished fourth in a school-record time of 3:11.29. That quartet consisted of freshman

Jacob Cook, freshman Keith Cleveland, sophomore Cory Lamar and junior Cyrus Granger. Johnson C.

Smith won that race in 3:09.17 and St. Augustine’s was second in 3:09.31. Indianapolis finished third in

3:10.99.

The AU men got another All-America award from freshman D.J. Duke in the shot put. Duke was sixth,

with his best throw coming in at 58-8.75.

Abilene Christian won the men’s title, the school’s first since 2005, with 45 points. Ashland was second

with 42 points and Lincoln finished third with 41 points. Fourth place went to Central Missouri with 36.5

points and Emporia State was fifth with 32.5 points.

The AU women were not able to duplicate their finish from a year ago. Senior Abby Kacsandi was third

in the pentathlon with 3,782 points and seventh in the high jump. Her best mark in the high jump was

5-6. She was the defending champion in that event. In the pentathlon, the gold medal went to Lindsay

Lettow of Central Missouri with 4,064 points. Angelo State’s Chrystal Ruiz was second with 3,981

points. Lisa Roth accumulated 3,600 points and earned All-America laurels by finishing sixth.

Senior Steph Tinney, who won a national title last year in the 400, just missed a top eight finish this

year; she was ninth.

The AU women were eighth in the final team standings with 21.5 points. Grand Valley State won the

national championship with 83 points. Lincoln (51) was second and Adams State (37) was third. New

Haven (32) claimed fourth place and Nebraska-Omaha (29) was fifth.