Three Earn All-MVC In First Day At MVC Championships

Three Earn All-MVC In First Day At MVC Championships

5/12/2017 9:26:00 PM | Track and Field

WICHITA, Kan. – The University of Northern Iowa track and field program wrapped up the first day of competition at the MVC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, notching three all-conference performances and multiple personal-bests.

Senior Brandon Carnes highlighted the action on the track Friday evening, running the fastest 200 meter time in the preliminary race to qualify for Sunday's finals. The Bradenton, Fla., native ran a wind legal time of 20.79 to advance to his fourth straight 200 meter final at the MVC meet.

Hannah Truniger and Kelsey Kirchoff turned in two top-five performances in the women's 10,000 meters with Truniger earning all-conference honors for her second place finish. Truniger ran a time of 36:24.85 to rank No. 5 all-time at UNI while Kirchoff placed fifth with a time of 36:45.41 for four points.

Brad Walski and Isaac Holtz scored team points for the Panthers in the men's hammer throw with Walski placing second overall to earn All-Conference. The senior finished with a mark of 192-1.00 while Holtz came in fourth for five points and a throw of 185-4.00.

Junior Sarah Pate brought home all-conference honors in the women's hammer throw for the second consecutive season, placing third overall with a mark of 196-11.00. Adding to Pate's key team points were Allison Griffin and Maddy O'Brien, who finished in sixth (179-11.00, PR) and eighth (173-3.00), respectively.

In the javelin, Hope Koerperich and Anna Bentley both added to the women's point total, finishing in seventh and eighth overall. Koerperich earned a mark of 138-8.00 for a personal-best while Bentley threw for 131-0.00 for a season-best. On the men's side, Jake Humpal reigned in some team points in the javelin with a fifth place finish, going 178-11.00 for a new PR.

The men's decathlon got things started in the multis competition with Alex Duff finishing the first day in fifth place out of 13 competitors with 3,501 points. Cade Kirkpatrick is sitting in sixth overall (3,476 points) with Austin Heitland in seventh (3,435 points) through five events.

Duff posted the third fastest time in the 100 meter dash with a wind-aided personal-best of 11.07 to start the day with Heitland following in 11.20. Kirkpatrick tied for fourth overall in the long jump with a new career-best mark of 22-3.75 while Duff was able to add a leap of 21-8.00 for another PR to finish fifth.

Heitland grabbed a season-best in the shot put for the Panthers, going 37-00.50 for sixth place with Duff earning another PR on the day with a toss of 32-5.50. In the high jump, both Kirkpatrick and Duff were able to come away with personal-bests with Kirkpatrick tying for first overall with a height of 6-4.25.

The decathletes finished the day with the 400 meter dash, giving Duff a career-best time of 49.49 for second. Heitland placed third overall with a strong time of 50.02 with Kirkpatrick recording a PR of 54.53.

All three Panther heptathlon competitors will look to improve their scores on day two of competition tomorrow after coming away with nine personal-bests between the three of them today. Lauren Frederick leads the way with 2,904 points through the first day with Brooke Lorenz bringing in 2,744 and Amanda Wiebke totaling 2,383 through four events.

Frederick posted a strong time of 14.57 in the 100 meter hurdles to get things started with Lorenz and Wiebke scoring career-best times of 15.46 and 15.78. Lorenz went on to win her flight in the high jump, leading the Panthers with a PR height of 5-2.25 to finish in the top-10 overall.

In the shot put, Frederick claimed a top-10 finish with a toss of 33-10.25 while Lorenz and Wiebke put up PRs again with mark so 29-8.75 and 29-0.50, respectively. UNI wrapped up the day in the heptathlon in the 200 meters with all three athletes earning PR times. Frederick notched a wind-aided time of 25.84 while Lorenz finished second in her heat with a time 26.01 with Wiebke rounding out UNI's times in 27.26.

The Panthers return to action tomorrow with the conclusion of the heptathlon at 10:30 a.m. and the decathlon at 11:30 a.m. Field events get started at 3 p.m. with the women's shot put and track action gets underway at 5 p.m. with the hurdles.