In their first of back-to-back home meets, the Baker University track and field teams won nine individual championships and improved on national-qualifying marks during the Wildcat Open Saturday at Liston Stadium.

Wildcat Open Event Champions

DayShawn Berndt: 400-meter dash, 49.19

Men’s 4×100-meter relay, 42.70

Men’s 4×400-meter relay, 3:18.64

Jeremy Gathright: Triple Jump, 14.23 meters

Khadijah Lane: 200-meter dash, 25.40

Kayla Hannam: high jump, 1.65 meters

Kayla Hannam: long jump, 5.46 meters

Katie Thurbon: pole vault, 3.65 meters

Stephanie Nelson: javelin, 45.48

Sophomore Kayla Hannam grabbed a pair of first-place finishes in the high jump and the long jump. Her leap of 1.65 meters in the high jump surpassed the NAIA B standard.

Junior Katie Thurbon also placed first in the pole vault and hit an “A” qualifying mark of 3.65 meters. Thurbon’s mark pushed her into the No. 3 ranking in the NAIA.

Juniors Cody Viergever and Valerie Schirmer also added their names to the Wildcats’ list of national qualifiers Saturday. Viergever hit A standard in the javelin with a mark of 58.71 meters, and Schirmer surpassed B standard in the hammer with a 47.58-meter throw.

The Wildcats will have another opportunity to qualify more athletes for the NAIA Outdoor National Championships this weekend, but Baker will have a different goal in the front of its mind – repeating as Heart of America Athletic Conference Champions.

Baker will host the HAAC Championships Friday-Saturday and have the chance to bring home two more conference banners.

The men’s team is looking for its fifth-straight track and field conference championship as it has the No. 1 seed in 11 events.

The women claimed 15 top seeds and will look for their fourth consecutive title.

Events are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Friday and will continue into Saturday.