A steady rainfall early Friday morning couldnt put a damper on the third day of the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
After a slight delay due to the weather, competition kicked off Friday, and at the end of the day, both the Redbird mens and womens teams sat in sixth place with eight and 14 points respectively. Wichita State leads the way for the women with 76 points, while Indiana State is ahead on the mens side with 47 points. Competition concludes tomorrow with the womens hammer throw at 9 a.m. Running events begin with the finals of the 4x100-meter relay at 1 p.m.
The Redbirds took home a number of top performances in many of the preliminary events. In the womens sprints, Lian Lucas took second in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.39. In the preliminaries of the 200-meter dash, Lucas took fifth with a time of 24.70. Andrea Mosher won the first round of the 400-meter hurdles (1:00.32), while placing fifth in the 100-meter hurdle trials (14.57).
Jen Klostermann won the preliminaries of the 800-meter run with a time of 2:11.62, while Laura Kennedy took home all-conference honors in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by finishing third with a time of 10:59.10.
Well have opportunities to score points on the womens side once many of the final events begin tomorrow, Forde said. Its going to be an exciting finish.
On the mens side, Miklos Konkoly enters tomorrows 800 finals having won the Friday trials with a time of 1:52.76, while Pierre Woods placed fourth in the 400 hurdle trials with a time of 53.42. Woods was a fifth place finisher in the 110-meter hurdle trials (14.56), while Casey Gantt placed fifth in the finals of the long jump (22-10).
In the throwing events, Mark Jackson was an all-conference performer in the hammer throw as he finished second with a mark of 164-4.
Overall, I know our athletes are going to perform well for us, Forde said. Theres still a lot of events left to score points in and well come out tomorrow and perform at a high level.
