Pittsburg, Kan. - The Missouri Southern track and field programs competed at the Wendy's Invitational hosted by Pittsburg State today and came away with two new school records and 15 NCAA Qualifying marks achieved. 

Throws

• For the men, Peyton Barton (21.18m) and Connor Boyd (19.24m) finished second and third in the weight throw with both recording NCAA Qualifying marks and for Barton it was the third farthest mark in school history. In the shot put, Jordan Garr (17.62m) and Cedric Pearson (17.08m) finished third and sixth with both recording NCAA Qualifying marks. Additionally in the shot put, Rajindra Campbell who was the 2021 NCAA Division-II / MIAA Outdoor and 2020 Indoor MIAA shot put champion as a Lion won the event with what would have been a school record 20.22m mark.
• Samariae Bonds came away with NCAA Qualifying marks in the shot put (14.19m) and weight throw (18.36m), winning the shot put with the sixth farthest mark in program history and finishing second in the weight throw as Mallory Huber won the weight throw with an NCAA Qualifying mark of 18.92m that set a school record. 

Jumps

• Jonathan Watts won the long jump with an NCAA Qualifying mark of 7.36m  which is tied for the ninth farthest mark in program history with Jordyn Manier at the 2017 MIAA Indoor Championships. In the high jump, Brendan Jewell won the event with an NCAA Qualifying mark of 2.13m which is tied for the sixth farthest mark in program history with Kevin Dotson in the Radio Shack Missouri Southern Invitational in 2000. Taris Jackson in the triple jump picked up an NCAA Qualifying mark at 14.86m to finish third in the event.
• For the women, Rylee Darnell finished second in the high jump open with a mark of 1.57m. In the triple jump, Precious Olatunji (11.38m) and Jennifer Okeke (11.32m) finished seventh and eighth in the event.

Pole Vault

• For the men, Bryan Candrl (4.53m) and Elliot Rule (4.38m) finished third and seventh in the event.
• Mackenzie Moring (3.62m), Abby Hobbs (3.47m) and Holly Robinson (3.47m) finished 10th-11th-12th.

Sprints/Hurdles

• For the men, Kyzer Gann-Vega (50.94), Simon Siebert (51.00) and Jacob Breedlove (51.35) finished 39th-40th-42nd. In the 60m hurdles preliminaries Malachi Pipkin finished ninth in a time of 8.27.
• Kiara Smith registered two marks in the 60m hurdles event that rank in the top-ten among program lists and are NCAA Qualifying times, beginning with a new program record time of 8.31 in the final to tie for first and in the preliminaries finished first with a time of 8.44 to be tied for the fourth fastest time in program history with Morgan Smith from the 2019 MIAA Indoor Championships. Precious Olatunji also competed in the 60m hurdles and finished with two NCAA Qualifying times as well, finishing fifth in the events finals with a time of 8.77 and in the preliminaries finished fourth at 8.82.
• In the 400m dash, LaNea Wallace (56.62) and Chardae Overstreet (57.42) finished fourth and sixth with Wallace's time an NCAA Qualifying time. Kiara Smith was not done with a fourth place finish in the 200m dash at 24.84 which is an NCAA Qualifying time.

Distance

• Kelton Sorrell (1:54.17) and Gabe McClain (1:55.02) were seventh and 12th in the 800m run. In the 3000m run, Riley Simpson finished third with a time of 8:19.76. Geordan Patrylak (4:20.42) and Zachary Finley (4:21.64) finished eighth and 12th in the mile run.
• For the women, Lilah Genel finished second in the 5000m run with a time of 17:24.57. Kelie Henderson (10:14.77), Jayne Gunter (10:24.61) and Riley Vickrey (10:30.36)  finished second, sixth and 11th in the event. In the 800m run Alana Bundy finished 38th in a time of 2:36.11.

Relays

• For the men, the 4x400m relay team of Rule, McClain, Sorrell and Watts finished 12th with a time of 3:20.91 and the team of Seibert, Gann-Vega, Breedlove and Candrl finished 17th with a time of 3:26.28.
• The 4x400m relay team of Overstreet, Wallace, Mya Ferguson and Olatunji finished 13th with a time of 4:02.80.

The Lions are set to return to competition at the Lewis Invitational hosted in Chicago, Ill. on Feb. 3rd.