Men's Track and Field | 5/6/2023 11:58:00 PM
May 6, 2023-Emporia State scored in eight of 14 finals and qualified five athletes for finals on day two of the MIAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Jefferson City, Mo. The Hornets also had six NCAA provisional qualifiers on the day.
Aren Trost got the Hornets started with a second-place finish and provisional qualifier in the decathlon. He entered the final day of the competition in third place and had the third best mark in the first four events of the day. Going into the 1500m he needed to finish in front of Pittsburg State's Doug Brown to move into second. Trost would win the 1500m in a time of 4:44.87 to finish 14 seconds in front of Brown and catapult into second place. He finished with a provisional qualifying total of 6582 points.
Brandon Wilkes also had a solid day, including a throw of 37.85m to win the discus portion of the competition to finish fifth overall with 6103 points.
Brooks Lowe threw the javelin 61.94m (203-3) to finish third with a provisional qualifier.
The Hornet men got a pair of eighth place finishes to round out the day two scoring.
Aaron Hunt cleared a season's best 4.51m (14-9.5) to tie for eighth in the pole vault.
Asher Moen placed eighth with a time of 9:36.73 in the 3000m steeplechase.
The Emporia State women got a good start in the multi-events as well.
Victoria Pettay, who entered the competition outside the top eight, finished in eighth place with a career best of 4097 points.
Alyssa Conway had another provisional qualifier and went over 190 feet in the women's hammer for the third time in her last four meets. She threw a provisional qualifier of 58.37m (191-6) to finish second by just 26 centimeters.
Holly Brockmeier gave the Hornets another runner-up finish with a provisional qualifier of 43.56m (142-11) in the javelin. It was a season's best throw for her and came on her last attempt as she moved from fourth to second place.
Megan McManis had the other point scorer for the Hornet women as she cleared a provisional qualifier of 3.81m (12-6) to place seventh in the pole vault.
Four Hornets qualified for finals in the men's competition led by three 400m hurdlers.
Chase Rooney ran a provisional qualifier of 52.86 in the first heat to move into fifth all-time at Emporia State in the event. Two heats later
Brock Merz ran a provisional qualifier of 52.81 to win his heat and jump back in front of Rooney on the all-time list at ESU. They will both be joined in Sunday's final by
Davion Scott who ran 53.51 to get the final qualifying spot.
The other qualifier for the men's finals was
Xavier Hall in the 110m hurdles. He ran a season's best of 14.54 to secure the the seventh spot in the finals.
Jasmine Hurla had the lone qualifier for the Emporia State women. She ran a personal best of 56.26 to qualify for the finals in the 400m.
The Hornets had six men that finished ninth in either finals or prelims on Saturday.
Henry Jones ran a personal best of 31:49.35 in the 10,000m.
Cody Achilles ran 9:42.41 in the finals of the 3000m steeplechase.
Ty Anderson had a personal best of 6.98m (22-10.75) to finish ninth in the long jump.
Jake Johnson was ninth in the prelims of both hurdle races. He ran a personal best of 14.54 in the 110m hurdles and then ran 53.75 in the 400m hurdles.
Carter Cox ran a personal best of 21.35 in the 200m prelims.
With seven finals completed the Emporia State men are in sixth place with 19.5 points while the women are in seventh with 19 points.
Competition will get underway on Sunday with the men's discus at 10:30 a.m. while running events are set to begin at 1:30 p.m.
