GREENCASTLE, Ind. – Trinity University senior Todd Wildman repeated as the NCAA Division III National Champion in the pentathlon. He won by an astonishing 87 points over second place Josh Lovell of Linfield College.
With the win, Wildman become's the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference's 20th individual national champion.
Wildman won the event with a total of 3,751 points. He finished first in the 55m hurdles with a time of 7.58, first in the high jump with a jump of 6-7 ½ (2.02m), fourth in the long jump 22’1” (6.73m), seventh in the shot put, with a new personal best of 36’ 6 ¼”, and eighth in the 1000m run with a time of 2:58.12.
Going into the meet Todd Wildman and Coach David Svoboda believed that the revised schedule this year would make the pentathlon less demanding for Wildman - who is also entered in two other events - but this was not the case.
According to Coach Svoboda, "It was a very up and down day for Todd. He ended up having to fight through some of the early events. He tweaked his hamstring in the 55m hurdles and fought back for a decent long jump. What got him pumped up again was an amazing performance in his weakest event, the shot put. He had a personal best which put him back in high spirits for the remaining events.”
Wildman had similar feelings, “Last year everything was clicking and everything seemed to fall into place. Today I scrapped and fought through the competition. The highlight of this year's competition was my personal record in the shot put.”
He is now a two-time champion in the NCAA Division III Pentathlon and a six time All-American for Trinity. With two events left he has the potential to be an eight time All-American.
Remaining for Wildman is the high jump tomorrow.
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