WKU Track & Field Finds Senior Day Success at Hilltopper Relays

Friday, April 5

Bowling Green, Ky.

Western Kentucky University

Hilltopper Relays

Photo by: Katie Stratman/WKU Athletics

WKU Track & Field Finds Senior Day Success at Hilltopper Relays

4/6/2019 11:16:00 PM | Track & Field

Full Results

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Track & Field celebrated 13 seniors Saturday afternoon at the Hilltopper Relays where WKU recorded 17 top-three finishes in 15 different events. The Red and White had six first-place finishes over the course of the two-day annual home meet.

Friday was primarily full of field events including pole vault and hammer throw. WKU's standout performance on the first day of the meet came from senior Lady Topper Getter Lemberg in the pole vault event where she recorded a personal record and placed second with a height of 4.01 meters.

On Saturday, the Lady Toppers continued to put up strong performances in field events. After standing for 40 years, the WKU women's outdoor high jump record has now been broken twice in a matter of eight days after Annastacia Forrester recorded a jump of 1.78 meters, just two centimeters higher than Katie Isenbarger jumped at the Florida Relays. Forrester placed second in the high jump event and finished first in the women's long jump after jumping 6.04 meters.

Continuing success in the jumping events were Hilltopper Sheldon Noble and Lady Topper Myesha Nott. Noble placed third in the men's triple jump with a length of 14.51 meters. Nott won the women's event after recording a 12.63-meter triple jump. Wrapping up field events was Adarian Gray, who threw a personal best 40.27 meters in the javelin to place third overall in the women's competition.

Track events on Saturday began with the men's 4x100-meter relay. WKU teams placed first and second in the event with times of 39.91 and 40.60, respectively. The teams each consisted of four seniors. On the first-place team was Will Bush, Austin Hayes, Abdur Kelly and Lincoln Warren. Finishing second in the relay was Josh Davis, Oliver Alexandre, Kymari Gates and Martin Owusu-Antwi.

Next up was the men's 1500-meter race where freshman Dedrick Troxell ran a 3:57.05 and placed first. In the women's event, Savannah Heckman led the Lady Toppers with a fourth-place finish and a time of 5:00.88.

In men's hurdling, senior Maor Seged placed third in the 110-meter hurdles while David Saruni took home second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.95. Senior Juannae Lewis earned first-place in the women's 400-meter dash with a time of 54.94. Senior Ka'Ven Berry placed fifth in the men's 800-meter after running a 1:56.73.

WKU proved successful in two particular men's sprinting events on Saturday: the 400-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. In the 400, the Red and White filled four of the top seven finishes, including a first-place finish from Gates. His time of 46.18 is expected to qualify for the NCAA Regionals in May. Alexandre, Warren and Kelly were among the other top runners. In the 200-meter, WKU recorded six of the top eight finishes, including placing second through sixth.

The WKU 4x400-meter relay squad placed second in the Red and White's final event on Saturday, finishing with a time of 3:11.45. Hayes, Kelly, Duncan Agyemang and Berry were on the second-place team.

"I think we can improve in everything," said head coach Erik Jenkins on the home meet. "We are going to be very heavy in the sprints, in the jumps, and I think our hurdles are really coming along. Across the board, I think we'll continue to grow, we just need more competitions and good weather like we had today, which was great. I was happy with our performances."