Women's Track and Field | 3/25/2022 10:52:00 PM
March 25, 2022-Emporia State had an event championship and a provisional qualifier on Friday at the ESU Relays. After six events the Hornet women are in second place behind NCAA Division I South Dakota State while the Emporia State men are in fifth after seven events.
Abigael Reid got things started by winning the heptathlon in her first attempt at the multi-events outside. She had a 106 point lead after the first day and had a personal best of 17-07 (5.36m) in the long jump in the first event of the day to add to her lead. The second event of the day was the javelin and this was the first time Reid had ever thrown it in actual competition. She threw just 68-0 (20.72m) to finish in 12
th and see her 209 point lead drop to just 35 points headed into the final event. She came through in the 800m winning in 2:27.82 to give her a final total of 4,424 points. She finished 129 points in front of Katelyn Darnell of NCAA Division I South Dakota State.
Victoria Pettay finished seventh in the heptathlon to pick up two points for Emporia State. She came down awkwardly in her final attempt of the long jump but was able to bounce back with a career best of 76-6 (23.33m) in the javelin and then ran 2:40.14 to move up into seventh place with 3783 points.
Alyssa Conway had the best throw by a collegiate competitor to finish second in the women's hammer. Her throw of 177-10 (54.20m) is a provisional qualifier as she finished second to Monique Hardy who was competing unattached. A top ten placer in the discus at the 2021 SEC Championships for LSU, Hardy threw 201-4 (61.38m) for the win.
The Emporia State women also got points from
Elizabeth Schwerdtfeger and
Lauren Carlson. Schwerdtfeger placed seventh in the triple jump at 35-4.5 (10.78m) while Carlson finished eighth with a personal best of 25.19 in the 200m.
The Hornets had men place in six of the seven events so far.
The distance medley relay had the best finish in the final event of the day for the men. The foursome of
Justyn France,
Joshua Reuting,
Luke Gleason, and
Dominic Jackson ran 10:53.18 to place third overall.
Coby Smith started the day with a fourth place finish in the decathlon. After three fouling in the shot put and no heighting in the high jump on Thursday, the freshman continued to grind and had a top three finish in four of the five events on Friday. The highlight was winning the pole vault portion of the competition by clearing 14-1.25 (4.30m) to pick up 29 points on the field. He would run 5:14.85 in the final event, the 1500m, to move into fourth place overall with 4,546 points. He was the third collegiate finisher as former Emporia State All-American Payson Maydew won the competition with 6,246 points.
Juwan Johnson and
Jaime Diaz each had seventh place finishes for the Hornets. Johnson ran 21.63, his second best time in his career, in the 200m while Diaz ran a personal best 14:55.58 in the 5000m.
Miles Lockridge placed eighth with a personal best 43-8.50 (13.32m) in the triple jump.
Will Herren placed ninth with a personal best by nearly 14 feet. He threw 149-5 (45.54m) and was the eighth collegiate finisher. Kord Ferguson, who is ranked 20
th in the word in the discus, won the event with a throw of 185-11 (56.66m) while competing unattached.
The ESU Relays will conclude on Saturday with the majority of the nearly 1,100 athletes competing. Field events will begin at 11:30 a.m. with running events starting at 12:00 p.m. on the Golden Oval of Witten Track in Welch Stadium.
