Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern women's track and field team saw two school records fall today in the final day of the 2017 MSSU Open inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
Emily Presley punched her way to nationals and set a new MSSU record in the pole vault, while
Morgan Smith broke her own school record for the second-straight week in the 60m hurdles.
Presley won the pole vault and hit an automatic qualifying mark of 13-07.25 which set a new MSSU school record, breaking the mark that
Melanie Bower set in 2016 by nearly six inches. The mark is also tops in Division II by the same six inches.
Mylene Loridan finished second with a provisional of 11-09.75, while
Samantha Donnell was seventh with a height of 11-03.75.
Smith was the lone Lion to qualify for the hurdles final, but she hit a provisional and broke her own school record by .01, running an 8.78 in the finals to win the event.
In other action,
Allie Heckemeyer was second in the long jump with a distance of 17-08.75, while Tiffany Gillford was 11
th and
Sierra Barrett placed 21
st.
Sierra Wells placed tenth in the mile with a time of 5:22.48, while
Christian Provence and
Sierra Gray placed second and sixth, respectively in the 3k. Provence finished in a time of 10:20.88, while Gray ran a time of 10:51.90.
Gabriel Hill was 16
th in the 3k, while
Shelby Werner,
Shelby Jackson,
Meggi Augustosky and
Abbi Rogers placed 22
nd, 23
rd, 26
th and 39
th, respectively.
Sara Lin placed 12
th in the 800m in a time of 2:28.17, while Kelsey Evans was 19
th.
Destiny Akannam was 8
th in the 400m with a time of 1:00.78, while
Rachel Ray was 12
th and
Kristen Koch placed 26
th.
In the final event of the night, the Lions' mile relay team of Gilford, Linn, Evans and
Ronise Miller placed tenth with a time of 4:16.17.
Southern will be back in action next weekend when the Lions travel to Pittsburg State to compete in the Pitt State Invite.
