Big Sunday Awaits
Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney track and field teams are sitting in fourth (women) and sixth (men) place after two days of the 2023 MIAA Indoor Championships in Pittsburg, Kan. The three-day meet began Friday afternoon with the multi-events. Several field and two track scoring events were held Saturday along with multiple track prelims. Things resume Sunday at noon. Kearney redshirt sophomore Nicole Messbarger set a new school-record at 600 yards (1:23.36) and Ainsworth junior Ben Arens (5,000) and Kearney redshirt freshman Lily Novacek (weight throw) both came in third place to lead the Lopers.
Messbarger's time was good enough to rank second in prelims and surpasses the 10-year old mark of Stephanie Hutsell (1:24.66). Arens had a time of 14:28.06 to score six team points with Novacek having a toss of 57-11.25. McCook redshirt sophomore Mackenzie Smith was two spots back (56-10) so UNK tallied 10 points in this event. Pitt State leads both the women's (83) and men's (64) races with the Loper women at 26 points and the men at 20.
The women tallied nine points in the high jump as Stamford freshman Brianna Russell (4th) and Kansas sophomore Brooklyn Staab (5th) both cleared 5-5.25 with David City redshirt sophomore Gabrielle Oborny seventh in the vault (12-3.25). She's reached 12-0 in five meets this winter. Finally on the women's side, Albion sophomore Jordan Soto-Stopak had the seventh best time in UNK history in the 5,000 (17:58.17) with the DMR squad turning in a 12:04.01. That was good for fourth place and second on the all-time Loper list. The group consisted of Funk senior Baylee Alstrom, Kansas freshman Abby Rose, York freshman Brynn Hirschfeld and Omaha redshirt junior Hannah Pollan. Besides Arens, scoring for the men was Kearney junior Brayden Sorensen (6th/high jump; 6-10.75), Bridgeport senior Connor Wiggins (4th/weight throw; career-best 62-4.40), Kansas junior Evan Prohaska (7th/weight throw; 60-10.75) and a reserve DMR team (5th/10:09.24). In prelims, Fremont junior Wes Ferguson led the way in the 800 (1:51.83), Ravenna junior Jack Drahota made the 60-hurdle finals (7th/career-best 8.10) and three Lopers made the 600-yard finals. That trio was led by St. Paul freshman Conner Wells (3rd/career-best 1:11.84).
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