MSSU women's track in second place after day two of MIAA Championships

(From MSSU Lions Athletic News)

Bolivar, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern women's track and field team picked up one event win and three All-MIAA performances and sit in second place overall after day two of the 2017 MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships hosted by Southwest Baptist University.

Allie Heckemeyer started things off for the Lions as she placed 2nd and earned All-MIAA honors with a new school record total of 4910 points in the heptathlon. The mark is a provisional total.

Emily Presley followed up her 2017 indoor title with the outdoor title as she improved her national lead and school record with a vault of 14-06.25, going an inch and a quarter over her previous record. The mark improves her NCAA AQ mark and is a new MIAA meet record as she was nearly 14 inches in front of second-place, coincidentally, the previous meet record holder. Mylene Loridan picked up points for the Lions in the pole vault, as well, narrowly missing out on All-MIAA honors with a 4th place performance in a provisional height of 12-04.75. Samantha Donnell was 12th in the vault.

Desirea Buerge picked up the third All-MIAA performance for the Lions with a 2nd place finish in the discus, hitting a provisional distance of 160-09. Buerge also picked up points for the Lions with a 6th place finish in the shot with a provisional distance of 44-06.25. Jenson Maydew was 13th in the event.

Heckemeyer picked up points with a 7th place finish in the long jump, while Tiffany Gilford was 12th and Sierra Barrett placed 16th.

In the running events, Destiny Akannam qualified for the finals of the 200m and the 400m dash, while Emily Harris qualified in the 800m. Sara Linn just missed out on the finals in the 800m.

Cynthia Torres and Christian Provence picked up points for the Lions in the 10k, with a 4th and 5th place finish respectively.

Morgan Smith qualified for the finals in the 100m hurdles, while Rachel Ray qualified in the 400m hurdles.

The Lions have 45 points and sit ten points behind first-place Pittsburg State. Central Missouri is third, followed by Emporia State and Fort Hays to round out the top five.

The final day of the championships will be tomorrow inside Plaster Stadium at SBU.