By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
In their lone home meet of the season, the Fort Hays State women’s track and field team boasted a strong performance at the Alex Francis Classic. The event, which was moved up one day due to impending weather, was the second outdoor meet for the Tigers on the season.
Yessenia Gonzales captured first place in the 5,000-meters with a time of 18:37.37. Two Tigers claimed first in field events, with Summer Kragel earning the top finish in the high jump at 5 feet, 3 inches and Alexcia Deutscher in the javelin with her provisional and winning throw of 146 feet, 3 inches.
A handful of other Tigers performed strong on the day, finishing in the top-ten in a majority of the events. In the 100-meters, four FHSU athletes placed strong with Lindsay Shupe leading the way in second place at 12.19, Lyric Holman coming in third at 12.49, Bree Hysaw clocking in fourth at 12.54 and Peri Lange crossing the line in sixth place with a time of 12.95. Shupe, Holman and Hysaw also placed in the 200-meters, coming in second (25.50), eighth (26.55) and tenth (27.26).
Lucy Giles finished in eighth place in the 400-meters with a time of 1:04.28, and Grace Buessing placed third in the 800-meters at 2:24.45, followed closely behind by Averi Wilson in sixth with a time of 2:36.28. Wilson also placed in the 1,500-meters coming in fourth at 5:17.03.
Abigail Stewart earned a runner-up finish in the 5,000-meters with her time of 19:25.47, with Tessa Durnell clocking in fourth place at 19:49.87. In the 100-meter hurdles, Haley George captured a seventh place finish with her time of 16.32. In the longer, 400-meter hurdles, Lange finished in the runner-up position with a time of 1:07.51. Courtney Batchman finished the event in eighth place at 1:12.99 followed behind by George in ninth place at 1:18.47.
In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Rylea Oliver finished in second place at 12:47.26 and Carson Pierce clocked a third place time of 13:01.20. Three 4×400 relay teams finished in the top-five, with the quad of Holman, Hysaw, Abby Burton and Shupe coming in second with a time of 4:17.91.
Moving to field events, Cheyenne Nickelson earned a fourth place finish in the pole vault with a jump of 9 feet, 6 inches. Haley Jones finished in third place in the high jump at 5 feet, 1 inch, with Robin Ritsema coming in third as well at the same height. In the long jump, Kayla Smith earned fifth place at 18 feet, inches and Rohey Singhateh finished in seventh with a jump of 17 feet, 9 inches. Singhateh claimed second in the triple jump, earning a distance of 38 feet, 5 inches. Smith followed Singhateh by coming in fourth with her jump of 37 feet, 1/5 inches.
In the discus, Laurel Haley finished in sixth place at 128 feet, inches and Logan Batchman earned ninth at 110 feet, 11 inches. Julia Wagner earned fifth place in the hammer throw with her attempt of 152 feet, 10 inches. In the javelin, two other Tigers finished behind Deutscher as Kalynn Foster earned second place at 123 feet 9 inches and Kaci Vaughn captured fourth place at 114 feet, 3 inches.
The Tigers are back in action next Saturday (April 6) as they travel west to compete in the Colorado Invitational in Boulder, Colo.