FHSU Sports Information
The Fort Hays State women’s track and field team had a solid performance at the MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, finishing eighth as a team. The Tigers were in fifth with one event remaining, but dropped to eighth. They finished just four points back of fifth. The FHSU women set three new school records and Madison Wolf won the javelin, giving FHSU the champion in that event for the third straight year.
Fort Hays State finished with 55 points as a team. Lincoln ran away with the team title at 182 points, Central Missouri was second at 104.5 points, and Pittsburg State was third at 93 points.
Madison Wolf won the javelin on Saturday with a throw of 155′ 1″. That gave Fort Hays State the MIAA women’s javelin champion for the third straight year after Makayla McPhail won the last two before graduating. Wolf was the only individual champion for FHSU, women or men on the weekend. It improved on Wolf’s NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the event. Wolf generated 10 points toward the team total with her win.
The 4×100-meter relay team of Lexi Riedel, Whitney Taylor, Mindy Wilson and Samantha Woodburn took second behind Lincoln. Lincoln turned in the fourth-fastest time in the nation to win (45.74), but the Tigers upped their provisional qualifying mark with the 20th-fastest time of 46.60 seconds. They churned out eight team points with their finish.
Woodburn set two FHSU records in the 100 and 200-meter prelims on Saturday with times of 11.71 seconds and 23.95 seconds respectively. She finished third in each of the finals on Sunday with times of 11.86 seconds and 24.16 seconds. She broke the records of 11.77 seconds and 23.97 seconds set by Sabrina Jensen in 2003. She generated the most points of any Tiger individually at the championships with 12, gaining six points for the team in each event.
Kykie Gaughan and Janessa Kobza each turned in fourth-place finishes. Gaughan had a time of 11:31.93 in the 3000-meter steeplechase and Kobza threw 148′ 3″ in the discus. Each scored five points for the team.
Danielle Berry finished fifth in the high jump with a height of 5′ 6″, giving the Tigers four team points. She earned a provisional qualifying mark in the event with the 28th-best effort nationally.
FHSU had four seventh-place finishes. The most notable was Sam Szczublewski in the 800 meters. On Saturday in the prelims, she broke the longest-standing women’s outdoor record at Fort Hays State with a time of 2:14.71, edging Martha Martin’s 2:14.74 from 1977. She bettered that time by two-tenths of a second to set a new record on Sunday at 2:14.51. Also finishing seventh were Megan Honas in the javelin at 132′ 2″, Anna Eigruber in the long jump at 18′ 6″, and the 4×400 team of Hanna Pfannenstiel, Whitney Taylor, Sam Szczublewski and Mindy Wilson with a time of 3:54.28. Each result generated two team points.
Eigruber also generated a point in the triple jump finishing eighth at 37′ 7.75″. Sydney Lower was eighth in the 3000-meter steeplechase in 12:07.67 and Ramsey McCarter was eighth in the 10,000 meters in 38:18.14.
Fort Hays State had four All-MIAA performances at the championship. Two were from Samantha Woodburn in the 100 and 200 meters, finishing third in each. Wolf won the javelin and the 4×100 team finished second. Top three performers in each event earn All-MIAA honors.
Tiger men finish 10th
Fort Hays State men’s track and field finished 10th at the MIAA Championships in Jefferson City, Mo., hosted by Lincoln University. The Tigers had two All-MIAA performers with Brady Tien in the pole vault and Nelson Vazquez in the 100 meters.
Fort Hays State generated 25 points as a team at the championships. Pittsburg State won the team title with 145 points, followed by Nebraska-Kearney with 118.25 and Central Missouri with 108.
Tien set a new personal best in the pole vault with a height of 16′ 8″, which tied the second-best height at the meet but he cleared it on his second attempt compared to the second-place finisher clearing it on his first attempt. The effort moved him up to ninth on the national performance list.
Vazquez stepped up his performance over the last couple of weeks and finished third in the 100 meters with a time of 10.73 seconds. He was fifth in the prelims on Saturday with a slightly better time of 10.68 seconds, but the former FHSU football player turned in a good enough time on Sunday for All-MIAA honors. His best effort of the season, 10.57 seconds, ranks 28th in the nation. Both Vazquez and Tien were the top individual point performers for FHSU, each with six points for the team.
Vazquez joined Nathan Simpson, Ed Williams and DeAndre James in the 4×100 meters to finish fourth with a time of 41.59 seconds. The all-football player lineup generated five team points.
Jonny Bernnasky finished fifth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 31:45.63 to grab four team points. Nathan Purdue was seventh in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:57.74 and Bryan Bombardier was seventh in the high jump with a height of 6′ 6″, each generating two team points. Jameson Klein finished eighth in the shot put with a throw of 49′ 2.5″ to give FHSU one team point.