18 May 2022 Harding sends five men to Nationals

Posted at 4:11 PMh in Sports by

SEARCY — Harding men’s track and field had five individuals selected Tuesday to participate in the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted May 26-28 at Grand Valley State University Track and Field Stadium in Allendale, Michigan.


Harding’s five individuals are the most to represent the Bisons at an outdoor national meet since Harding sent six to the NAIA national meet in 1997.

The five qualifiers include junior Fallou Gaye and sophomore Nikolasz Csokas in the 400-meter hurdles and sophomore Dorian Chaigneau, senior Austin Parrish and senior Alex Hindman in the pole vault.

Gaye, a junior from Senegal, qualified eighth in the 400-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 51.50 at the WT Last Chance Meet. Gaye will be making his second appearance at outdoor nationals. In 2021, Gaye earned Second Team All-America honors with a 12th-place finish (53.15 seconds).

Csokas, a sophomore from Hungary, will also make his second straight appearance in the 400 hurdles at nationals. He qualified 14th with a season-best time of 51.99 seconds at the ASU Red Wolf Open. Last season, Csokas earned First Team All-America honors with a seventh-place finish (52.42).

Chaigneau, a sophomore from France, qualified second with a school-record clearance of 5.40 meters or 17 feet, 8.50 inches. He will be making his second appearance at outdoor nationals and fourth nationals appearance overall. Chaigneau was the 2021 indoors national champion and placed fourth indoors in 2022. He placed 10th last season in his only outdoor nationals competition.

Parrish, a senior from Austin, Texas, will make his second straight outdoor nationals appearance and third overall. He qualified eighth with a season-best clearance of 5.22 meters or 17 feet, 1.50 inches at the Rhodes College 7-Way Meet. Parrish earned First Team All-America with a seventh-place finish at 2022 indoors and Second Team All-America with a ninth-place finish at 2021 outdoors.

Hindman, a senior from Seminole, Texas, qualified 14th with a season-best clearance of 5.10 meters or 16 feet, 8.75 inches at the Missouri S&T Qualifier. He will make his first appearance at nationals.

Gaye and Csokas will run in the 400-meter hurdles preliminaries Thursday at 6:40 p.m. with the finals Saturday at 3:10 p.m.

The pole vault competition begins today at 1 p.m.