Murray State
John Craft Invite
Racers Shine at John Craft Invite
1/18/2020 10:27:00 PM | Women's Track and Field
The Murray State track and field team returned to action, Saturday at the John Craft Invite at Eastern Illinois.
"Today was a very productive day for our team," said head coach Adam Kiesler. "It was the first meet for some athletes and others got to run some events they aren't used to. Overall this was a positive step moving forward towards the OVC Championships."
Overall, the Racers finished second out of 14 teams with 140.5 points, behind only the host Panthers.
"A few marks that stick out are Jewel [Wagner] in the weight throw, D'Myia [Thornton] in the 600, and [Meghan Fletcher] with a high jump mark that ties Ashlyn [Oren] for the best jump in the OVC. It was great to see some kids overcome some obstacles today to have a lot of success. We look forward to next week as we try and get better every day.
On the track, three Racers qualified for the finals, led by Jumyia Denning, who ran a personal-best 7.72 in the finals to finish second. Kenia Seals was right behind her in third with a time of 7.76. Rachel Hagans rounded out the group in fifth with a time of 7.90.
Denning also led the Racers in the 400m with a personal-best time of 1:00.53 to finish fourth. LaMiah Campbell (1:00.58) and Lucia Herrero Yanez (1:01.19) finished in fourth and fifth, respectively while Hagans (1:02.39) and Amirr Evans (1:02.47) were eighth and ninth.
In the 600m, D'Myia Thornton took first place with a time of 1:36.40. Norma Abdur-Rafia and JaKayla McSwain also finished in the top five with times of 1:41.64 and 1:43.59, respectively.
Kristin Dent and Morgan Vosler each had top-10 finishes in the 800m as Dent ran 2:28.95 to finish seventh while Vosler was ninth with a time of 2:30.57.
Emma Graf led the way for MSU in the 3,000m as she finished sixth with a time of 10:35.82. Emma Creviston also finished in the top 10 with a ninth-place finish and a time of 10:45.24.
In the 4x400 relay, the Racers' team of Abdur-Rafia, Thornton, McSwain, and Denning dominated the competition with a time of 3:55.21, winning by nearly 13 seconds.
The high jump kicked off the field events for the day and Meghan Fletcher got the Racers off to a strong start as she finished second overall and first among collegiate competitors with a jump of 1.70m. Jenna Pauly finished fourth overall at 1.60m.
In the triple jump, Eleri Gesler finished fifth with a jump of 10.64m as she was the lone Racer in the event.
Brooke Misukonis gave the Racers another event win as she won the pole vault with a height of 3.50m. Jessie Kinder, Shannon Riley, and Pauly all cleared 3.20m to finish tied for fourth.
Destiny Carey also found herself leading the pack in her event as she won the shot put with a distance of 13.75m. Jewel Wagner finished fifth with a distance of 12.35m.
Wagner led the pair in the weight throw as she finished fourth with a personal-best toss of 16.89m. Carey finished seventh with a distance of 15.67m while Ashton Crowe also finished in the top ten as she finished ninth with personal-record distance of 14.37m.
The Racers will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Southern Illinois to compete in the Don DeNoon Invitational, Friday and Saturday.
Players Mentioned
