Missouri Southern’s track and field team traveled to Pittsburg Saturday, Feb. 1 to compete in the Wendy’s/Pittsburg State Invitational. 

The team had one automatic qualifying mark, 14 provisional and three event wins.

Southern’s Josh Norville, junior, won with a qualifying mark of 7.60 meters in long jump, which is a Southern event record. 

Four of the provisional marks were won by throwers. Seniors Kirsten Leisinger who threw 17.29 meters and finished second and Alexandra Rodriguez who threw 17.28 meters and finished third as well as senior Travis Petersen who threw 18.90 meters and finished sixth and junior Josh Fulmer who finished fourth with a throw of 19.93 meters. 

Senior Payton Roberts placed first in the shot put with 15.38 meters, another provisional mark.

Lauren Sutherland, sophomore, tied for fourth place with a provisional mark clearing 3.63 meters in the pole vault open portion of the event. In the pole vault invite junior Elena Bisotto had a provisional mark of 3.73 meters and finished in seventh and senior Emily Presley finished in second with a provisional mark of 3.93 meters and owns the meet and facility record. 

Cornesia Calhoun-White, freshman and Claire Luallen, sophomore, finished in second and third respectively both making provisional marks. 

Junior Jasmine Deckard ran the 60-meter dash and finished fourth with a provisional qualifying mark. 

As for runners Brieon Randle finished ninth in the 400-meter dash with a provisional mark of 48.39 seconds. Gideon Kimutai won the 3,000-meter run with a provisional time of 8:16.07 minutes and teammate Ryan Riddle finished third with a time of 8:19.83 which was also a provisional qualifier. 

Gabrielle Hill, senior, ran the 3,000-meter run and placed fifth with a time of 10:55.41 while teammate Danielle Prince, sophomore, placed sixth with a time of 10:57.13. 

In the mile Southern had athletes Nathan Painter, junior, place sixth, Kelie Henderson, sophomore, place fourth, Mady Gepford, junior, place 10th and Janna Hautala, junior, place 11th. 

Missouri Southern not only had athletes place, but many also hit their personal record as well. Two such people were Hill and Hautala. 

Missouri Southern will be hosting the MSSU Lion Invite in the Leggett and Platt Athletic Center Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7, and 8.