The Missouri Southern track and field teams participated at multiple meets last weekend, with the distance runners at the Kansas University Relays, throwers at Central Missouri and sprints and jumps at the Missouri S&T Dewey Allgood Invitational.

Distance coach Jamie Burnham is optimistic about his team going forward.

“This team has done everything I have asked of them, said Burnham, “They want to exceed, so they have been able to exceed our expectations.”

At the KU Relays, Southern’s men and women distance runners picked up four top-10 finishes.

Junior Josh Webb finished second in the 1500m with a time of 3:58.23. Sophomore Nathan Painter and junior Nickson Kiptoo placed 17th and 18th in the event, respectively.

In the women’s 1500m, freshman Kelie Henderson finished third with a time of 4:47.53. Sophomore Julianna Determan finished ninth in the 5k with a time of 17:43.71.

In the men’s 10k, junior Cody Berry finished seventh with a time of 31:30.08.

The Southern throwers in action at Central Missouri had an impressive day, with records falling and impressive individual performances.

On the women’s side, junior Desirea Buerge had two event wins.

Buerge won the discus, hitting an automatic qualifying distance of 178-06. Juniors Payton Roberts and Kirsten Leisinger both picked up NCAA Provisional Qualifying marks in the discus, with distances of 157-01 and 152-00, respectively.

Buerge followed up her impressive discus performance with another event win in the shot put.

Her mark of 16.21m broke her own school record and earned her another NCAA AQ. Roberts finished third in the event with a distance of 15.19m, an NCAA Provisional Qualifying distance.

Leisinger finished second in the hammer throw with an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark of 54.81m.

For the men throwers, junior Travis Petersen finished fourth in the hammer throw, breaking the Southern school record with an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark of 62.73m.

Junior Rajindra Campbell won the discus, earning himself an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark of 55.72m. Campbell also finished second in the shot put with an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark of 17.86m.

At Missouri S&T, the women’s track team had five event wins, while the men had four event wins.

For the women, senior Morgan Smith won three events herself. Smith won the 200m, 400m, and 100m hurdles.

Smith’s first place finish in the 100m hurdles came with an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark of 13.70. Freshman Elizabeth Adeoye finished second in the event.

Smith won the 400m dash with a time of 58.51, while sophomore Ashlynn Vanatter finished fifth and freshman Deiajuane Watts finished sixth.

Senior Emily Presley won the pole vault with a provisional height of 13-00.25.

For the men, sophomore Jon Johnson won the 400m, with a time of 48.63. Freshman Kevin Koester finished second in the 1500m with a time of 4:02.80. 

Junior Dean Howard won the pole vault event with an NCAA Provisional height of 15-09.75. Junior Josh Norville was close to a school record in the long jump, finishing first with a distance of 24-11.00, an NCAA Provisional distance.

Sophomore Adrian Broadus won the triple jump with a provisional distance of 48-10.75.

The Southern men and women track and field teams will be back in action this weekend at Pittsburg State.