MANKATO, Minn. — The Wayne State College women’s indoor track and field team finished seventh and the Wildcat men placed eighth at the 2019 Northern Sun Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships that wrapped up Saturday in Mankato, Minn.
Wayne State’s conference champion was O’Neill native Mikayla Marvin, who continued her season improvement by taking first in the pole vault with a new school record mark of 11 feet, 11 3/4 inches.
Redshirt freshman Mckenzie Scheil and sophomore Jadin Wagner also earned All-NSIC honors as Scheil took second in the weight throw with a top mark of 58-10 1/2 while Wagner came in third in the shot put (46-10 3/4).
Freshman thrower Brooklynn Chipps earned a medal in two events, taking sixth in the weight throw (55-9) and eighth in the shot put at 43-9 1/4.
Freshman sprinter Jordyn Pester placed fourth in the 400-meter dash finals with a time of 56.95 seconds that was good for an NCAA provisional mark. Joan Jelimo collected a sixth-place medal in the 600-meter dash (1:37.31) and Tia Jones came in seventh in the shot put with a mark of 44-2.
The Wildcats’ 1,600-meter relay team of Molli Vasa, Jelimo, Marin Jetensky and Pester came in seventh place in a time of 4:01.74.
In men’s action, sophomore Cade Kalkowski and junior Dylan Kaup were Wayne State’s All-NSIC performers, placing first and second in the weight throw.
Kalkowski’s winning mark was 66-1 3/4 while Kaup was right behind in second with an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 64-3 1/4. Teammate Matthew Nemec also made the finals in the weight throw but just missed a medal in ninth place at 55-5 1/2.
Freshman Mikhail Sands recorded a fourth-place finish in the long jump at 22-7 3/4. Fifth-place finishes came from senior Robert Sullivan in the heptathlon at 4,914 points and Ben Allen was fifth in the shot put at 51-0 1/4. Sixth-place medal winners were Jayle Hinkle in the shot put (50-1 1/4) and Nathan Pearson in the 800-meter run (1:58.29).
The University of Mary captured the women’s team title with 163.5 points followed by Minnesota State in second with 115.5 points. Augustana was third at 111 with Winona State (75.5), Minnesota Duluth (50), Sioux Falls (43.5) and Wayne State (40) rounding out the top seven.
Minnesota State easily captured the men’s team title with 212 points, well ahead of runner-up University of Mary with 115. Sioux Falls was a close third at 109.5 points with Minnesota Duluth (69), Augustana (58), Concordia-St. Paul (57), Northern State (42) and Wayne State (37) rounding out the top eight teams.
