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File photo. Hannah Meier

Track and field opens outdoor season at ESU Spring Invitational

The men and women’s track and field teams opened the 2019 outdoor season on Saturday, March 23 at the Emporia State University Spring Invitational in Emporia.  

Head Coach Russ Jewett believes that both teams did well at the competition as it was the first outdoor meet of the season.  

“Well I think (we did) pretty good considering it was our outdoor season opener,” Jewett said. “We could not take everybody to the competition… We took the folks that we think needed to compete and did fairly well overall, I thought.”  

At the competition, there were two individual victories; one on the men’s team and one on the women’s team. On the men’s team, junior Joshua Hudiburg won the men’s javelin and broke his personal record. On the women’s team, senior Courtney Nelson won the women’s 400-meter hurdles.  

A few competitors stood out to Jewett during the meet 

“I think it was primarily we excelled in the field events,” Jewett said. “That is fairly typically of the first outdoor meet. We did not really enter a whole lot of running events folks. To highlight a few here Hanna Fergasun in the long jump had an outstanding competition. (It was) not her lifetime best but (it was) not far off of it which is pretty good for a first outdoor meet… JordySchrader had a personal best, lifetime best in the triple jump (and) that was good to see. Jena Black had a pretty solid day. Konner Swenson had a nice day in the discus and the hammer and the shot as well… JosHudiburg (had) a standout performance; very strong provisional qualifier in the javelin. (He) threw 218 feet and did an outstanding job there. Levi Wyrick and the hammer, good opener there, just under 200 feet… I think our hurdlers did pretty well on the track. Justice Burks had a nice opener of 14.05 which is pretty good under the circumstances; again, sprinters in chilly weather like we had, that was a pretty good performance.”  

Jewett is looking forward to the next couple of meets.  

“Well, we go down to Tulsa to the Oral Roberts University (ORU),” Jewett said. “We have not been to this competition before. (It is) supposed to be just an outstanding facility obviously some really good competition; mostly division one schools and us… That will be fun. We will unleash some more field event and running event folks there… We will take a few long-distance runners to a different meet at Washington University in St. Louis for some good 5ks. Other than that, we will all be over at ORU and expect to make some progress…”  

The track and field teams have two upcoming meets. The Washington University in St. Louis meet is on Friday, March 29. The second meet is at Oral Roberts University on Saturday, March 30.  

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