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Nash Trumbly reporter
Pittsburg State Track and Field hosted the annual Wendy’s PSU Invitational at the Plaster Center, shattering individual records and putting up yet another solid performance at home. Coming into the meet on the back of an incredible performance during last week’s Rumble In the Jungle Invite, the women’s team took home eight event titles, while the men’s team took home three.
Auna Childress broke the school’s record for the triple jump and her personal best with a mark of 42 feet, 2 inches, taking home the event title for her team.
The women’s team also showed dominance in the 60-meter hurdle, with all four of PSU athletes winning their preliminaries and earning spots in the final round.
“I think I did really good, it wasn’t my PR [personal record] as I ran my PR last week but that was just prelims and I’m excited to see what I can do in the finals,” said sophomore Sky Hagan, who ran the third best time for the event in school history at the last meet.
She continued to show dominance this week, taking first in the event overall.
“I felt really good, usually I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I beat myself up. But today I felt like it’s going what it’s going to be, and I’m just going out there and do good,” said Hagan.
The team was victorious in multiple other events too, such as the women’s distance medley, with runners Kate Dawson, Maddie O’Neill, Claire Bruening, and Camille Roy running 12:21.64. They also took titles in the pole vault, the 3000-meter run, and even the 800 meters, where Dawson ran a 2:12.27, the third best time in school history.
In another event win for the women’s team, Jentrie Alderson took home the title in the 5000-meter run, with a time of 17:18.00.
“It felt good, we were really going out there kind of using this event as a training 5k rather than a full race, but I really enjoyed it, and it was a great experience for me,” said Alderson.
While the men’s team took home fewer titles, they still managed to break their own share of records on the field. Corey Lyons competed in the men’s 600-yard run, beating the school record of 1:11.33 set last year by Graham Hudelson by a full second, with a time of 1:10.33.
The men’s team also took home titles in the 60-meter hurdles, with a record-breaking performance during the preliminary rounds by T.J. Caldwell. His time broke the previous school record with a time of 7.74 seconds. He continued his dominance in the finals, taking first place with a time of 7.76 seconds, and another PSU athlete Daylin Williams taking second with a time of 7.77 seconds.
“The last meet we ran was really small, so I feel like it was easier to go out there and do good, but I feel like this meet, especially because it’s the Wendy’s invitational, its tradition for us, so I feel like this meet really makes you want to do good, and everyone is doing great today,” said Hagan.
Pitt State next meet will be the Washburn Open on Feb. 3.
