Wednesday Results (PDF)
Official Championships Page
OWENSBORO, Ky. – League records and meet records both tumbled on the first day of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Kentucky Wesleyan College at the Owensboro complex.
Findlay has the team lead in both men’s and women’s team races in the early going with 51 points from the men and 39 counted for the women, respectively.
Five different individual champions were crowned on Wednesday, the first of the three-day format.
The multis kicked things off in the women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon while final events in the hammer throws, women’s pole vault and 10K, highlighted action.
Findlay broke two overall conference and meet records in the form of Austin Combs in the men’s hammer throw and Savannah Amato in the pole vault. The Oilers actually swept all top three finishes in both events at the awards podium for all-conference honors.
Combs easily cleared the auto qualifying mark with a distance of 70.09m and now ranks second in Division II. The previous conference record was held by former NCAA champion Marcus Myers of Walsh (67.12m) in 2018 and Combs broke his own meet record of 64.84m in 2019 at Hillsdale.
UF’s hammer throw runner-up Sterling Mungro, an indoor national champion, was also credited with a broken meet record as he recorded a distance of 67.23. Orry Willems, a freshman, placed third as the Oilers stole the show.
Amato, a senior, skied over 4.23m (13’ 10.5”) to edge out her own teammates Morgan England and Lindsey Kluesener, both All-Americans in their own right. Amato took over the conference record two different times this spring, including 4.10m on April 10.
Amato hit the auto qualifying mark for the second time and currently ranks third in Division II among all pole vaulters.
She toppled the previous conference championship meet record held by Walsh’s Kaitlyn Barber (3.97m) in 2018 while battling some tough winds that were swirling on Wednesday. England cleared 4.13m, which also would have been a new conference/meet record as well and Kluesener had a clearance of 3.78m.
In twilight, Findlay’s Gabby Lawrence and Noah Fisher, were featured in the 10K races as they emerged as pace setters in the 25-lap count around the track. Lawrence set a conference meet record with a time of 36:03.97 and Fisher finished the night with a title in 30:57.78.
Lawrence broke the previous meet record held by Cedarville's Alayna Ackley, who also earned all-conference honors last night with a third-place finish. Another Findlay freshman, Paige Emnett, brought home the women's hammer throw title as one of the first events to compete on the new throws area located near the front of KWC's campus.
Findlay’s freshman Keandre Marlow has the early lead in the decathlon with 3,299 points scored through five events. He won the 100-meter dash and impressed in the high jump pit while clearing 1.96m for the most points.
The women’s heptathlon is paced by Tiffin’s standout Jazilee Williams, indoor All-American, who won the 100-meter hurdles, high jump and shot put on Day 1. She was runner-up in the 200-meter dash.