Eagles Put up Big Performances at Cornell Invite
Mount Vernon, IA -- Faith Track & Field battled through a cold and windy meet on Saturday, coming away with one Nationals qualifier and the first two event wins of the year.
The field athletes were the stars on Saturday, starting and ending the day with big performances in Mount Vernon.
Cade Cooper took the lead in his first jump of the day and was the only athlete to surpass 6.00m through the first round of jumps. Austin Jordan started short but inched his way up the board until he secured the second place finish with a leap of 6.15m in the fourth round. Cooper came away with the first place long jump finish, jumping a meet best 6.30m to give the Eagles their first event win of the season.
Minutes later, Codie Wirges gave the Eagles their second win of the year, taking first place in triple jump. Following scratches in the first two rounds, Wirges jumped the winning mark of 9.37m that would hold through all six rounds, as no other athlete reached 9.00m in the event.
Luke Akins ended the day with an outstanding performance in shot put as he PR'd three times in six throws. Despite coming up just short of the nationals qualifying mark, Akins placed third out of 21 competitors and finished the day with a career best 12.55m mark.
On the track, several runners inched closer to qualifying times and five Eagles placed top 10 in their events. Carlie Blevins met the qualifying standard in her second event this year as she finished the 1500m run with a time of 5:05.45, and will compete at Nationals in two events so far.
Full team results can be found >here<
Up Next: The Eagles head to Grinnell on Saturday, April 11th to compete at the Dick Young Invitational. Event information will be posted as it becomes available.
2026 Nationals Qualifiers
Cade Cooper: Long Jump (3/28, Central Invitational)
Austin Jordan: Long Jump (3/28, Central Invitational)
Carlie Blevins: 5000m run (3/28, Central Invitational), 1500m run (4/4, Cornell Invitational)
2026 Event Wins
Men's Long Jump: Cade Cooper (4/4, Cornell Invitational)
Women's Triple Jump: Codie Wirges (4/4, Cornell Invitational)
