Pride open 2024 outdoor season in Pella for Central Invitational
PELLA, Iowa - Getting back to full team action for the first time since February's Heart Indoor Championships, the Clarke University track and field team opened the outdoor season at the Central Invitational on Thursday.
The Pride came away from their first outdoor meet with various personal best marks, four event wins, and four school records, including an early NAIA National Championship qualifying mark as Daniel Adams continues to thrive in the high jump, hitting a winning jump of 2.10 meters, clearing the NAIA A Standard to already book a trip to Marion, Ind. for the championship meet in May.
Adams, a freshman from Muscatine, Iowa, is now a double national qualifyer in his first season in Dubuque after qualifying for the indoor championships in the high jump as well, becoming the first freshman in program history to qualify for both NAIA Championship meets for Clarke men's track and field.
Two other school records on the men's side both involve sophomore sprinter Joshua Musonda as he set an individual record in the 400-meters with a second place time of 49.73 seconds and he also helped the 4x100 relay group that also included Brandon Martin, Jake Etherington, and Gavayne Smith won the event with a 42.19-second time.
The last school record came in the 5,000-meter run as Jaycie Franco won the event with a 18:46.17 as she cleared the old school record by about 24 seconds with teammate Megan Hageman earning a second place finish at 19:22.23.
CU's final event win came on the women's side as Annemarie Koerner earned a first place result in the long jump with a 5.43-meter best jump nearing both a national qualifying and school record breaking mark but still short of both.
Koerner also came in sixth in the javelin, just .24 meters behind Isabelle Matthews who set a new personal best at 33.64 meters for a fifth place event finish.
Smith had a good start to his outdoor season as he finished as the runner-up in the 100-meter dash with a 10.91, just about a half of a second away from a national qualifying time and .02 seconds away from the school record.
On the women's sprinting side, Gabrielle Dillard earned a third place finish in the 100-meter dash with a 12.79 as well as a fourth place finish in the 200-meter dash with a 26.66 second time, both less than a second away from school record marks, and Samantha Fowler finishing in fourth place in the 400 meters with a 1:01.54 time.
James Vandun had a couple of top-five finishes in jumping events with a third place mark of 6.47 meters in the long jump and a fourth place 3.85-meter top clearance in the pole vault.
Full Results Here: https://results.aatiming.com/meets/32410/teams/799952
Pride track and field will head into their extended Easter Weekend before they compete again on Saturday, Apr. 6 when they go to the Cornell Invitational in Mount Vernon, Iowa.