In an event that saw nearly 1,000 collegiate athletes compete, Emporia State set two school records, had 12 provisional qualifiers and had two automatic qualifiers in the ESU Relays at Witten Track.
“I’m just very happy with the meet,” said Head Coach David Harris. “In fact I’m elated that we were able to run this many competitors through a meet in one day at Emporia State. I believe we did a good job. I was very happy with our team. They came to work and help, and, of course, they came to compete.”
Josh Schuler tore things up for the men in winning the 100m dash as well as tying an ESU record of 10.29 seconds in the event. Schuler also won the 200m dash and helped the 4×100 relay team win with a time of 40.79 which is second best in ESU history.
“I was a little disappointed with our time,” Schuler said. “But I mean it was a good day to run, and our hand offs were good, so I felt great about it. I thought we ran faster.”
Derwin Hall, Ryan Dickson and Shjuan Richardson were also responsible for the first place finish.
“I felt like we had a good race,” Hall said. “Everybody’s hand offs looked really crisp and solid. I think the wind kind of bothered us a little bit. But we still ran the same time we ran last week, so that’s good.”
Other top performers for the men included Josh Honeycutt in the triple jump and long jump in which he finished second and sixth respectively.
Briar Ploude (first place) and Marcus Calleja (fifth place) earned provisionals in the high jump as Kevin Roulhac in the hammer throw (third) and discus (fourth) also earned a provisional. Bret Gross earned a championship for ESU finishing first in the pole vault.
For the ESU women, Jennifer Robinson and Deja Jackson both earned provisionals. Robinson earned hers placing second in the high jump with a jump at 5-07.00. Jackson threw for 143-08 and placed fourth in the discus to earn hers.
“Certainly on the women’s side, we had two seconds (Robinson and Katie Mona) that did really well,” Harris said. “Two seconds in a meet like this is a good performance.”
Katie Mona was the other second place finish with her time of 4:40.47 in the 1500m. Mona placed second in the event behind Kansas State’s Sara Stoakes. After leading down the stretch, she lost to Stoakes by just .51 seconds.
“I had been drafting off of her for awhile, so once I actually got the wind, it felt a lot harder, and I just didn’t have enough at the end, the last 100,” Mona said.
The Hornets look to continue their success this year on Thursday and Friday at Witten Track as they compete in the ESU combined Multis.
Brandon Schneeberger




