King Earns UNI Track and Field's First MVC Honors of the Season

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Darius King has earned UNI track and field's first Missouri Valley Conference athlete of the week honors of the season.

King was named this week's MVC Field Athlete of the Week for his performance at the Hawkeye Invitational. King won the shot put at the Hawkeye Invitational with a season's best throw and meet record of 19.64 meters. King maintains his first place spot in the conference and sits sixth in the NCAA.

King is the son of Reginald and Beverly King from Moline, Illinois. He is majoring in technology management with a minor in computer science at UNI.

Darius King is a returning three-time NCAA qualifier who competed in the 2020 Olympic Trials. King finished 12th at the Trials with a throw of 19.66 meters. King's personal best throw is 20.14 meters, set at the Gibson Invitational in April of 2021. He holds three MVC shot put Champion titles and a total of 8 MVC honors. King holds the UNI shot put record indoors with a throw of 20.06 meters and holds the record outdoors with a throw of 20.14 meters. King also holds the MVC Championship Indoor meet record in the shot put.

The Panthers host their first home meet in the UNI-Dome this week with the Mark Messersmith Open Jan. 20-21. The event is free and open to the public.

OTHER WEEKLY HONORS

Male Track: JaVaughn Moore, Sr., Indiana State (Marietta, Georgia)

Moore won the 60-meter and 200-meter races at the Coughlan/Malloy Cup, breaking the meet and facility records in both events for the Sycamores. The senior ran a 6.74 in the prelims of the 60 before taking home the event title with a 6.77 in the finals. He followed that with a 21.66 time in the 200, which broke the meet record by 0.3 seconds. Moore has won the 60m each of the last seven times he has competed in the event, dating back to the 2019-20 season, and has clocked top-three times in the Valley in both the 60m and 200m this season. He has Indiana State's facility record in both events.

Female Track: Nicola Jansen, Fr., Bradley (Pretoria, South Africa)

In her Bradley Track debut, Jansen nearly broke the school record in the 3,000 meters at Saturday's Hawkeye Invitational. In fact, Jansen won the 3,000-meter title and broke the meet record with a time of 9:26.14, claiming the top spot in the field by nearly 50 seconds. Her time, which ranks 21st nationally and was the 3,000-meter time in the MVC since 2018-19, was just over one second from topping Bradley's school record set by Caitlin Busch in 2016.

Female Field: Kamille Gaskin-Griffith, So., Indiana State (Bridgetown, Barbados)
Gaskin-Griffith won the long jump at the Coughlan/Malloy Cup, setting a new personal record in the process. Saving her best jump for her final attempt, Gaskin-Griffith used a 5.45m (17-10.75) jump to overtake teammate Ryann Porter for the title. She also broke her previous personal record of 5.42m with that jump. Gaskin-Griffith also finished fourth in the 60m hurdles (9.25), which was her second-best time ever in the event, and eighth in the shot put (8.49m/27-10.25) at the Coughlan/Malloy Cup.

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