Kessel wins first MVC title as UNI track & field wraps up indoor conference championships

Sunday, February 25

Chicago, Ill.

9 a.m. / 9:30 a.m.

University of Northern Iowa

MVC Indoor Championships

Kessel wins first MVC title as UNI track & field wraps up indoor conference championships

2/26/2024 6:23:00 PM | Track and Field

Final Results Photo Gallery

CHICAGO — Freshman Spencer Kessel secured his first Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) individual title on Monday as the Panthers wrapped up competition at the 2024 MVC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Gately Park in the Windy City.

UNI finished this year's indoor conference meet in third place in the men's standings, and sixth in the women's race. Indiana State took home team titles for both the men and women.

Throwing a career-best 18.24 meters, Kessel is the fourth different Panther to win the men's indoor shot put at the MVC Championships, and first since Darius King's three-peat run from 2020-22. Kessel also cracked UNI's top-five all-time list in the event, which came during his sixth and final throw of the competition.

Zach Butcher secured second place in the men's heptathlon with 5,297 points, finishing in the top-five in all seven events. Brody Lovell, meanwhile, placed sixth in the heptathlon with 4,658 points.

In the men's mile finals, freshman Chase Lauman took home a fifth place finish with a time of 4:14.61, while Emma Hoins placed eighth in the finals of the women's mile run in a personal-best time of 4:51.93. Running in the men's 60-meter hurdles finals, Jack Sumners took fifth place with a time of 8.08, as Paige Kisley ran a season-best time of 8.73 to place sixth in the women's 60-meter hurdles.

Three Panthers recorded season or personal-best performances in the men's 400-meter finals. Onal Mitchell led the way in fourth place with a season-best time of 48.05 seconds, with Isaac Vaske placing fifth with a new personal-best of 48.49 seconds and Zach Fall taking sixth place in a personal-best time of 48.54 seconds. Jill Bennett ran a new season-best time of 56.55 in the women's 400-meter finals to place seventh. Tinashe Chigudu (6.81) and Luke Meyers (6.86) also finished fourth and seventh places respectively in the men's 60-meter dash finals for the Panthers.

Chase Knoche earned runner-up honors in the men's 800-meter final with a time of 1:49.28 with Jayden Dickson finishing just behind in fourth with a season-best time of 1:51.99. On the women's side, Sophia Jungling also came in second place in the 800-meter finals in a time of 2:12.15. Chigudu earned another second place finish in the men's 200-meter dash finals with a season-best time of 21.17 second, as Meyers came in fourth with a personal-best time of 21.46.

Carson Lienau (17.11m) and Sebastian Swistak (16.58m) placed sixth and seventh respectively in the men's shot put finals, as Breanna Hackman took home seventh place in the women's shot put finals with 13.47-meters. Josey Dunbar (10.92m) and Maleah Walker (9.99m) placed seventh and 13th in the women's triple jump final, with Ethan Peters taking home fifth place in the men's high jump after clearing 1.97-meters. In the women's high jump final, Rylie Todd recorded a season-best 1.71-meter leap to come in third place, while Josie Moreland (1.68m) finished in fourth place.

Closing out the meet, the men's 4x400-meter relay team of Mitchell, Fall, Knoche and Meyers placed second with a season-best mark of 3:13.76. Joey Perry, Bennett, Jungling and Auriona Kimbrough finished in fourth in the women's relay in 3:48.99.