Bearcat Open Recap

Maryville, MO – Unlike most sports, college track and field does not compete with a team score taken at each meet, instead the desire is to qualify individuals and relays for those meets where team scores are kept, Conference and Nationals. Of course, personal improvement is always applauded by teammates and coaches, but qualifying for Conference and Nationals is a desired bonus while improving. The Bearcat Open was the last chance for many to get qualifying marks for Conference and the Pioneers responded well taking an additional fourteen spots as well as two National qualifying marks and twenty-four personal bests.

On the men's side of events, seven Pioneers drove themselves into eight qualifying Conference spots. MNU newcomer Gift Orionoma had a great day as he set two personal bests and in doing so also qualified for the Conference meet in both the 60 and 200 meter dashes. Jatavion Pegues followed suit in the 200 meter dash, setting a personal record and grabbing a Conference spot. Climbing the long sprint, mid-distance ladder, both Maikyah Stowe and Zack Jones grabbed Conference spots in the 400 and 800, respectively, with personal bests. Continuing up the ladder, Ray Kosgei and James Mwihaki both punched their tickets to the Conference meet in the 1000 and 5000 meter races, respectively. Meanwhile in the field events, senior, Nick Allen, set a personal record in the weight throw, launching himself into the Conference meet.

For the women, six Conference qualifying spots were taken by the Pioneers. For the sprinters, Janiah Nicholson ran an improved 200 to bolt into Conference. Freshman Joslyn Griffin set her collegiate best in the 400 to also grab a qualifying mark. Moving into the 1000 meter race, three Pioneers refused to be left out of Conference as senior, Casandra Reyes and freshmen Anna McKnight and Isabella Meili all qualified, the latter two setting their collegiate bests.  The final addition to Conference came from a longer endurance specialist, as freshman Riley Filmore set a personal best by nineteen seconds in the 3000 meter run.

Besides those above who qualified for Conference at this meet, there were many personal or seasonal bests in this great Missouri facility. In the field events, senior Reanna Green, continued to show her leadership in the nation's top NAIA long jump squad, showing improvement for the third week in a row. Also in the long jump, teammate Ryleigh Hayes followed Green's example, grabbing a personal best. Meanwhile in the throwing events, senior Caley Blosser led the charge in the shot put with a seasonal best. Freshman Alexandra Dickerson, however, was not to be outdone as she set two personal bests, shot put and weight throw. As mentioned, previously, senior Allen got his guys going in the weight throw with Jacob Creswell hitting a personal best while at MNU. Alexander Dawkins closed out the throwers' highlights with a great showing in the shot put to continue his marked improvement with a personal record. On the track, the mid-distance athletes got the races started on Friday with four personal bests in the 1000 meter race, three mentioned above, McKnight, Meili, and Kosgei, and freshmen Julia Swearengin. They continued the battle with Ken Morgan grabbing his personal indoor record in the 5000 meter race.

On Saturday, Sam Keita kept his improvement streak alive as he moved the needle one more time in the 60 meter hurdles. Sprinting teammates crushed the 200 and 400 meter races with eight personal bests. In the 200, Orionoma, Pegues, and newcomer Lance Jones all claimed their collegiate bests. For the 400, every Pioneer who raced set a personal best. That included Griffin, Hannah Edwards, Elijah Bergin, Stowe, and Mathew Banuelos. Alyssa Ward flew in her 600 yard race to show marked improvement by a few seconds in only her second meet of the season. Vaulting up to the mile, Gracie Enochs and Kennedy Krotzinger both claimed their collegiate bests.

After a couple days of great performances by the Pioneers, the meet was capped off by the 4x400s. The Pioneers put four relay teams together, two women's and two men's. Often this is done to test athletes and get some extra "practice" time. All four teams responded admirably.

In the women's 4x400 relays, both of the Pioneers relays were in the same heat, giving them a chance to drive each other. The first legs belonged to Nicholson on one team and Destiny Lassiter on the other. This was Lassiter's first race of the season, and she did all she could to stay close to Nicholson who had a great 400 split. Nicholson handed off to Griffin, with Lassiter giving the baton to Green, the long jumper. It was an incredible battle as the always competitive Green refused to give Griffin any lead. That pushed Griffin to a good split also, as the two refused to give in. Griffin managed to hand off to Alex Gere just a step ahead of Green and then the A team took over. However, the B team of Lassiter, Green, Ward, and Edwards gave a great fight, pushing the A team to a strong race. After a great leg by Gere, Lakin Essex exploded as she looked across the track to the clock. She ran her fastest split ever to ascertain the goal in place, a National qualifying mark.

Though both men's 4x400 relays ran very well, the A team of Keita, Banuelos, Blake Poje, and Zack Jones all had splits under 50 seconds. This catapulted them into the National meet with an A standard qualifying mark of 3:15.74 which currently stands at 12th in the NAIA and top of the Heart of America Conference.

Though the coaches would agree that there is always room for improvement, this was a good meet overall with many personal bests, Conference qualifiers, and two National qualifiers.