Pride produce full team effort at Heart Outdoor Championships

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Closing out the week with two days worth of action at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, the Clarke University track and field teams came away with a fifth place finish on the women's side and a ninth place finish for the men.

The Pride men produced 54.5 points over the totality of Friday and Saturday's competition while the women scored 69.75 team points for their second-straight fifth place finish at conference after finishing no higher than 10th the two years prior.

Combined between both programs, CU scored top-five event finishes in 18 different events including nine trips to the podium with the lone gold medalist coming in the women's pole vault as sophomore Grace Squires swept the event in both the indoor and outdoor championships, clinching the gold in the outdoor pole vault with a winning clearance of 3.25 meters.

Joining Squires on the podium was freshman Evelyn Lee as she would finish in third place with a 3.10-meter clearance to find the podium in both the indoor and outdoor championships while Emma Grant added a fourth place finish in the pole vault with her 2.95-meter best height.

The top finish on the men's side for Clarke came in the high jump as Daniel Adams finished as the silver medalist with a 2.08-meter clearance but was unable to go over the winning height of 2.14 meters.

Six other podium appearances for the Pride were split evenly between the men and women as Annemarie Koerner earned a third place finish in the women's heptathlon with her 4315 total points scored, Noah Church finished the 5K racewalk in third place with a time of 24:25, the men's 4x100-meter relay team of Gavayne Smith, Joshua Musonda, Brody Deitering, and Jake Etherington finished third with a time of 41.79, Rory Bickler finished the 1500-meter run in second at a 4:52.99 time, Gabrielle Dillard finished the 100-meter dash in third place at 12.57, and Emmett Schwartzhoff finished the 5,000 meters in third at 15:41.01.

Other notable point-scoring performances from individuals came from Dillard and Smith both finishing their 200-meter dash finals in fifth place as Dillard ran a 26.21 and Smith finished at 22.13, Bickler finished in fifth place in the women's 5K at 19:03.17, Daniel Miller finished in fourth place in the men's 10,000 meters at 33:03.51, Jaycie Franco earned fourth place in the 3K steeplechase with a final time of 11:55.61, and James Vandun finishing fourth in the men's decathlon.

Two other relays on the women's side had top five finishes as well as the 4x400-meter relay team of Koerner, Dillard, Samantha Fowler, and Anyah Ranson finished in fifth with a time of 4:11.55 and the 4x800-meter relay team of Franco, Megan Hageman, Lena Wilson, and Keona Coleman earned fourth place at a 10:00.46 time.

Full Results Here: https://milesplit.live/meets/617896/team-scores

Clarke track and field will now prepare for the NAIA Championships with Adams (high jump), Church (5K racewalk), and Deitering (decathlon) already qualified for their trip to Marion, Ind. on May 22-24 as others will have opportunities to qualify at a last chance meet on May 9-11.