Lopers Win Four Times in Topeka; Home Next Friday
Kearney, Neb. – Distance runners Wes Ferguson and Luke Stuckey set new school-records to pace Nebraska Kearney this weekend in Kansas. Most of the Lopers were in Topeka for the annual Ichabod invitational; Ferguson (Fremont) and Stuckey (McCool Junction) were part of a small group of Lopers in Pittsburg for the annual Indoor Gorilla Classic. Both meets began Friday afternoon and ran until Saturday night. On Saturday at Pitt, Ferguson notched career win number 21 thanks to a 1:48.25 in the 800. He breaks his own UNK mark (1:49.04) for a second straight week and takes the gold in the 800 for a fourth time this indoor season. He led a pack of 72 with seven other D2 runners recording a national list time. Dylan Burrows of Oklahoma Christian (1:49.26) was the runner up with Ferguson still ranked second in D2 behind Colorado State Pueblo's Reece Newell-Sharman (1:48.17). Next, Stuckey moved up four spots to first on the mile list thanks to a 4:04.95. That bests the 4:06.49 Cole Wellnitz ran in February 2017 with Stuckey now ranked 15th nationally. He finished fourth out of 83 with MIAA rivals Ryan Riddle (Missouri Southern/3:59.25) and Reece Smith (Northwest Missouri/4:04.89) among those ahead. On Friday night, Stuckey ran the opening leg for the DMR team with Ferguson the anchor. Wallace redshirt junior Micah Swedberg and David City sophomore Payton Davis joined them for a second-place finish and the third best time in school history (9:44.48). The effort ranks fourth nationally and could've maybe been a second lower had someone not clipped Davis, forcing him to tumble and then quickly get back up. Finally at Pitt, St. Paul freshman Conner Wells was third in the 600-yard run with the third best time in Loper lore (1:11.92) and helped the 4x4 relay team have the seventh fastest time (3:18.00) in program history. Ravenna redshirt sophomore Jack Drahota was the relay's anchor and he earlier had a career-best effort (21.84) in the 200-meter dash. That moves him up three spots to second on UNK's top 10 list. The Loper men saw both Alex Goracke (shot) and Brayden Sorensen (high jump) win in Topeka. Goracke (Giltner) had a toss of 54-8.25 with Sorensen (Kearney) clearing 6-11.50. On the women's side, freshman Stamford freshman Brianna Russell came in second with a leap (5-6) that puts her on the national list and ties her for seventh in program history. The other UNK wins came in the men's pole vault and the women's 4x4 relay team (3:55.05). That group featured Kearney redshirt sophomore Nicole Messbarger, Kansas freshman Abby Rose, Aurora redshirt sophomore Kyla Carlson and Gothenburg junior Hannah Anderson. In the vault, Creighton redshirt sophomore Alex Homan and Hershey redshirt senior Kyler Banks both reached 15-7.25. Finally, Carlson now has UNK's sixth best all-time effort at 600 yards (1:26.28), Anderson moved up to eighth on the 800-meter list (2:15.81) and both Goracke (61-9.75) and Kansas redshirt junior Evan Prohaska (61-0) reached 61-0 in the weight throw. UNK takes part in the Loper Tune Up and Nebraska Tune up next Friday. Those will be the final regular season meets of the season.
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