Wayne State throwers shined on the final weekend of the regular season as seniors Michaela Dendinger and Kacie O’Connor competed Friday in the discus at the Minnesota State Twilight Meet, with the entire team participating Saturday at the Nebraska Invite in Lincoln.
Dendinger took first in the discus on Friday in Mankato with a throw of 170 feet, 4 inches, while O’Connor came in second with a new personal best mark of 163-6 that is an NCAA provisional qualifying mark ranked 10th in NCAA Div. II at the time of the throw.
Saturday in Lincoln, Dendinger recorded three NCAA automatic qualifying marks in the discus, hammer throw and shot put while placing second in all three events. She had a mark of 205-5 in the hammer throw, 173-4 in the discus and 53-9 1/4 in the shot put.
O’Connor had a sixth place finish Saturday in the discus at 150-3 while freshman Kenzie Sullivan was seventh at 140-8.
In the hammer throw, freshman Jadin Wagner was sixth at 151-11 with senior Tessa Ives seventh with a mark of 146-7. Wagner also took sixth in the shot put (46-3 1/4) with Tia Jones seventh (45-1 3/4) and Sullivan 10th (40-4 1/4).
The top finisher in running events was graduate student Mary Alderson, taking seventh in the 100-meter dash (12.52) and seventh in the 200-meter dash (25.24). Junior Joan Jelimo was sixth in the 400-meter dash (58.96) while freshman Allysa Kimpson came in ninth in the 100-meter dash in 12.67 seconds.
Habib Jallow had the highest finish among the Wayne State men, taking second in the 400 meter hurdles in 55.24 seconds while also placing sixth in the 110 meter high hurdles with a time of 15.06 seconds.
Redshirt freshman Cade Kalkowski recorded a third place finish in the hammer throw at 183-8. Three other Wildcats placed in the top 10 in the event, with Richard Sweeney taking eighth (167-6), Cole Christoffersen ninth (167-1) and Matthew Nemec 10th at 166-10.
Freshman Preston Davis took third in the 400 meter hurdles (56.03) and was ninth in the 110 hurdles (15.56).
Other top finishers included Jayle Hinkle placing fourth in the shot put (48-6), Bryce Holcomb placing fifth in the 800-meter run (2:00.38) and Nathan Pearson coming in seventh place with a time of 2:01.27, Cole Christoffersen seventh in the shot put (46- 0 1/4) and Dylan Kaup was 10th in the discus at 134-2.
Wayne State will compete Friday and Saturday at the NSIC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Winona, Minn.
