CEDARVILLE, Ohio - The NCCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships got underway on Friday with several top performances for the Malone University track & field teams. The Malone men are off to an early lead through five scored events and the women's team is fifth.
 
Three school records were broken and two NCCAA national championships were handed out to Pioneers. Both the men's and women's 4x200-meter relay squads had the best marks in program history. The men's team of Phil Stupka, Bryant Thompson, BJ Robinson and Sabastian Lacatus won the national title along with the record time of 1:29.48. The women's team of Amber Morris, Abigail Blaz, SaRae Johnson and Allea Graves put up a time of 1:45.80 and placed second.
 
Stupka's day did not end there as he also set a new school record in the 60-meter dash. He qualified for Saturday's event finals with a second-place time of 6.84 seconds to set a new personal best and the fastest mark in the history of Malone. Graves made the women's 60-meter dash with a time of 7.77 seconds, the third-best time in the record book. Morris failed to qualify for the event finals, but had a personal record good for sixth in program history.
 
The other national title belonged to the men's distance relay team of Xander Heil, Tyler Twining, Eric Dehmer and Hayden Schmidt. They won the race with a time of 10:21.03. The women's distance medley relay squad of Jenna Cassidy, Johnson, Brooklyn McIntyre and Kristin Yeager was third overall (12:40.40).
 
Other top performers for Malone included Otani Ekpe, who qualified for the 60-meter hurdles (8.31 seconds) and three scoring members in the men's 5000-meter run. Yahya Jawadi was second (15:08.86), Wyatt Royster fifth (15:29.83) and Tesfaye Young seventh (15:34.61) in the event.
 
The championships will conclude on Saturday, February 14 from Cedarville University. Action begins at 9:00 A.M.