Lopers Home Next Saturday Night
Kearney, Neb. – Junior Wes Ferguson defended his 800-meter title, true freshman Brianna Russell won the high jump, senior Brayden Sorensen broke his own school-record and junior Ben Arens had another runner up finish Sunday at the 2023 MIAA Outdoor Championships in Jefferson City, Mo. The three-day meet began Friday afternoon and wrapped up on Sunday evening. Both Loper teams came in nationally-ranked and both finished eighth, the men tallying 63.50 points and the women 52.0. The men scored 62.50 points to place sixth in 2022 and had 61.50 to be seventh a year earlier. The women reach 50 points for the fourth time in five years. Coming into the meet, the MIAA men had six in the nation's Top 25 with the women having eight in the Top 30. Top-ranked Pittsburg State (184.5) easily won the men's title with Northwest Missouri (137.0) getting past the Gorilla women (133.50) to come in first. Ferguson (Fremont) ran a 1:51.79 to take the 800 gold with Central Missouri freshman Brian Mitei (1:52.13) the runner up. Ferguson then ran anchor for the fifth place 4x4 relay team that had the fifth best time (3:13.82) in school-history. Junior Micah Swedberg (Wallace) and true freshmen Conner Wells (St. Paul) and Tyson Baker (Fremont) also were on the squad. Earlier on Sunday, McCool Junior senior Luke Stuckey was runner up in the 1,500 (3:49.12) with David City sophomore Payton Davis (7th/3:51.15) and Holdrege senior Trevor Matousek (8th/3:54.38) also scoring. Next, Arens ran a 15:14.84 to place second in the 5,000; he was the steeple runner up on Saturday. Finally for silver medals, Sorensen was one of three jumpers to clear 7-1.75, doing so on his second attempt. That bests the 7-1.50 he reached at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships. The other men's scores on Sunday were Ravenna junior Jack Drahota in the 400 hurdles (7th/55.42) and Gretna freshman Clayton Kelly in the triple jump (8th/45-10). Russell (Stamford) came in leading Division II in the high jump (5-9.25) and she promptly topped that by going 5-9.75 today. That keeps her third on UNK's all-time list and she is now third in D2; two others went 5-10.75 and 5-11.25, respectively, this weekend. Finally, Russell joins Morgan Benesch (steeple) and Jackie Ziemke (shot put) as the only Loper woman to have won a MIAA outdoor individual title. Also on the women's side, Kearney redshirt freshman Lily Novacek was third in the discus (144-1), Omaha junior Hannah Pollan (4th/4:38.89) and Funk senior Baylee Alstrom (5th/4:40.00) cracked the 1,500-meter top five thanks to career-best times and the 4x4 relay team finished sixth with the fifth fastest time (3:49.00) in Loper lore. That group featured juniors Nicole Messbarger (Kearney) and Hannah Anderson (Gothenburg), sophomore Kyla Carlson (Aurora) and freshman Abby Rose (Lindsborg, Kan.). Finally, O'Neill junior Abby Everitt was sixth in the high jump (5-5) with Jordan Soto-Stopak seventh in the 5,000 (18:22.94). Select Lopers will take part in the Concordia and Loper Twilight meets next weekend.
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