By FHSU Sports Information
Photo courtesy FHSU SID
KEARNEY, Neb. – The Fort Hays State men’s track and field team produced six All-MIAA performances, including two individual championships. The team competed at the conference championships held in Kearney May 4-6.
Brett Meyer and Decano Cronin brought home the two championship performances. Meyer claimed first in the 1,500-meters at a time of 3:53.30, while Cronin out-ran his field in the 800-meters with a finishing time of 1:50.06. Meyer earned another All-MIAA honor in the 800-meters after finishing in third place at 1:51.25.
The other three All-Conference performers for the Tigers came during the field events. Jake Morrow finished in the runner-up position in the pole vault with his height of 16 feet, 11 inches. Lucas Broxterman also finished in second place in his event of the high jump at 6 feet, 11 inches, followed by teammate Kolt Newell in third place at the same height.
Other solid performances highlighted the championship weekend for the Tigers, including Malcom Gardner claiming two top-ten performances. Gardner took sixth in the 200-meters (21.29) and eighth in the 100-meters (10.59) which were both good enough times for provisional marks. Oscar Carmona earned fourth in the 1,500-meters with a time of 3:56.77, while also claiming sixth in the 5,000-meters at 15:26.47.
Kyle Comstock capped a sixth place finish in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.74 and Weston Riner ran for 54.83 in the 400-meter hurdles to place seventh. In relay competition, Comstock, Jacob Schumacher, Johnathan Penrose and Gardner led the way to a fifth place finish in the 4×100 at 41.82, while a fourth place time of 3:15.77 in the 4×400 relay comprised of Schumacher, Meyer, Gardner and Cronin sealed strong relay performances.
Switching to field performances, Sam Dreiling earned another provisional in the pole vault coming in eighth place with a height of 15 feet, 9 inches. TJ Dozier earned a fifth place finish in the discus with his throw of 167 feet, 2 inches for a provisional. In the javelin, Derek Bixenman placed ninth at 175 feet, 8 inches, while also earning fourth place in the decathlon with a provisional 6,497 points. Teammate Matthew Pieper was close behind in fifth place alongside his provisional points at 6,467.
As a team, the Tigers amassed 90.5 points to finish in the fifth place. Pittsburg State led the way with 166.5 points followed by Central Missouri (103.5) and Emporia State (92).