Tough competition didn’t stop the men’s and women’s track teams from performing at the top of their game Saturday at the Emporia State University State Farm Relays meet.
The men’s team highlighted the weekend by setting a new school record in the 4×100-meter relay.
Seniors Aaron Hannon and Kome Okiomah, sophomore J.L Anderson and freshman Reggie Harris comprised the team that ran a time of 42.12 seconds and took third place at the meet. The team’s time beat the old record of 42.65 that was set in 2006.
“It’s very exciting because we know we can still go a lot faster than what we have done,” Okiomah said. “It’s exciting because we are still making improvements.”
In addition to setting a new record in the relay, Okiomah qualified for nationals in the 200-meter dash. Freshman Jeremiah May also had a standout performance. May qualified for nationals in the javelin with a throw of 56.54 meters.
Head coach Zach Kindler said he was impressed with the men’s performance against the quality competition they faced.
“I think we have a very competitive men’s team,” Kindler said. “We have a top-three conference men’s team for sure, I feel. So, I knew it has been there the whole time, we just finally got the weather to allow us to do that.”
Junior Mary Loveland led the team on the women’s side, grabbing second place in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:37.26. Junior Carrie Lister took second in the shot put with a throw of 12.30 meters. Senior Kayla Irwin also led the pack, tying for third place in the pole vault with a height of 3.30 meters.
Irwin said the nice weather at the meet was a pleasant change from the previous meet.
“It was very nice,” Irwin said. “We actually got to go out and kind of show what we have a little bit.”
Kindler said he was equally impressed with the performance of the women’s team.
“We had a number of personal bests or seasonal bests for outdoors,” Kindler said. “The weather really allowed us to get out and compete. The training is really starting to come together, so I was very pleased with both sides this week.”
Both teams will compete Saturday in the Central Methodist University Invite in Fayette, Mo.