The UMKC men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Holiday Inn Invitational hosted by the University of Nebraska on January 15 and 16, with junior distance runner Kelly Carpenter and senior thrower Blake Hocking highlighting the weekend for the ‘Roos with first-place finishes.
In Friday’s field events, sophomore Traci Mills placed fifth in the long jump with a distance of 5.52 meters. Fellow sophomore Kylie Conrow matched a career-best leap at 4.99 meters, to place 19th in the competition.
Zane Lockhart set a new personal-record in the long jump, taking 18th with a leap of 6.29 meters, while freshman D.J. Morgan placed 21st in his first time competing in the event, jumping a distance of 6.19 meters.
Nicolas Basore vaulted to a career-best mark of 4.11 meters in the pole vault, beating his previous-best of 3.80 meters. The mark was good for an 11th-place finish in the unseeded competition.
Firing off the track events on Friday evening was the women’s 60-meter hurdles qualifying round with three ‘Roos in the chase to make it to the preliminary round, where they would meet junior Mallory Short, who was an automatic qualifier with a time of 8.77 seconds. The preliminary included eight pre-qualifiers (Short included) and the 24-fastest times from the qualifying round.
Freshman Louisa Nylander led the trio of ‘Roos in the qualifying round with a time of 9.62 seconds, but just missed the mark to qualify for the prelims, with the 25th-place time.
In the men’s 60-meter hurdles qualifying race, all three UMKC runners in the event made it to Saturday’s prelims, with senior Terrone Garner recording the fastest time of the three ‘Roos, finishing in 11th-place at 8.55 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second slower than his personal-best time in the event.
Devin Burton (8.74 seconds) and Zak Snow (8.83 seconds) finished 21st and 24th, respectively, making it into the prelims.
Mills led the four UMKC runners in the women’s 60-meter dash qualifying round, recording a personal-best time at 7.88 seconds, two-hundredths of a second faster than her previous best. Joining Mills with preliminary-qualifying performances were Essence Brewer and Lynette Cottingham. Brewer placed 18th with a time of 8.01 seconds, and Cottingham just snuck into the prelims in 23rd at 8.10 seconds.
In the men’s 60-meter qualifiers, freshman Chadayne Walker sped his way to a fourth-place finish at 6.93 seconds. Junior Justin Martin and senior Brady Adams also qualified to race on Saturday with eighth and 21st place finishes.
Elizabeth Nolke and Hanna Miller finished sixth and seventh in the 1,000 meters, with Nolke recording a time of 3:07.26 and Miller posting a career-best time of 3:07.58. In the men’s race, freshman Darrien Case finished 15th in his first-collegiate 1,000-meter run, notching a time of 2:40.16, and Zane Lockhart set a career-best with a time of 3:02.32.
Sophomore James Barnett set a personal-record in the mile, placing fourth with a time of 4:24.10, while teammates Marcus Johnson and Kolton Sheldon finished 12th and 15th, respectively.
Chandler Carreon and Jason Fambrough each placed fourth in their respective 3,000-meter run, and each notched career-best times. Carreon finished in 10:17.08, and Fambrough in 8:40.02.
Wrapping up the action on Friday for the ‘Roos was Carpenter in the women’s 5,000 meters. Carpenter didn’t disappoint, taking the title in the event with a career-best time of 18:31.59.
Saturday kicked off with more gold for the ‘Roos, as Hocking took first in the shot put with a throw of 16.03 meters, edging out his closest competitor by four centimeters.
In the 60-meter dash prelims, Walker displayed his speed again, this time finishing one-hundredth of a second slower than his qualifying time, and notched the 10th-fastest time, missing the finals by just that much.
Jason Shaw posted a career-best performance in the 600-meter run, shaving nearly three seconds off his previous mark to place 16th with a time of 1:23.76.
Wrapping up the meet for the ‘Roos were the 4×400-meter and distance medley relay teams. The women’s distance medley team, comprised of Gabrielle Penaflor, Miller, Nolke and Carreon raced their way to a sixth-place finish, while the men’s team of Barnett, Marcus Johnson, Shaw and Nathan Straubel took ninth. The women’s 4×4 team capped the weekend off with a seventh-place time of 3:57.44.
UMKC next takes to the oval for the Jayhawk Classic in Lawrence, Kansas on January 28 and 29.