👟 Men Take Second, Women Third at Jim Click Open Multi's and Shootout
TUCSON, Ariz. – The Kansas Track and Field team saw the men’s team finish second and the women’s team finish third at the Jim Click Open Multi’s and Shootout on April 5-6 at the University of Arizona.
The men’s team finished with a total of 112.50 points behind Arizona’s 154. The Nebraska men were close behind with 110 points to round things out in third place.
On the women’s side, 99 total points earned the Jayhawks a third-place finish. Nebraska took the top slot with 158.50 points, while the host Arizona finished second with 129.50.
Tayton Klein was the men’s decathlon winner in his first showing of the season, ending the weekend with 7629 total points. The sophomore out of Andover, Kansas collected victories in the 100m (10.46), long jump (7.46m) and the 400m (48.32) while also finishing top-five in the javelin (fifth, 53.49m) and the 1500m (third, 4:35.83).
Alexander Jung finished fifth in his multi debut, closing out with a total of 7453 points in his first decathlon of the season. The Saarlouis, Germany native won both the discus (42.36m) and the pole vault (4.95m) and was top-three in shot put (12.61m) and 110m hurdles (14.73).
Other noteworthy performances on the men’s side came from Dimitrios Pavlidis, who won the men’s discus throw with a new season-best of 58.85m. Ashton Barkdull was also victorious, taking the top slot in the men’s pole vault with a best bar of 5.32m. Devin Loudermilk won the men’s high jump title with a season-best 2.16m, while Grant Lockwood also brought home a victory in the men’s 400m with a new PR of 46.61.
Gabrielle Gibson was the women’s standout performer for a second-consecutive week, breaking her own school record for a third time already this season by running a 12.95 in the 100m hurdles, surpassing her previous best of 12.99. Yoveinny Mota was right on her heels, running a 12.98 to finish third behind Gibson’s second place.
Lona Latema collected her first victory of the outdoor season, running a 4:24.97 to win the women’s 1500m. Addie Coppinger was close behind with a time of 4:26.08, finishing third in a str0ng field.
Mason Meinershagen and Gabby Hoke also went one and three in the women’s pole vault, with Meinershagen taking the win by a new outdoor PR of 4.16m and Hoke finishing third with her 3.96m clearance.
Sofia Sluchaninova was the women’s discus runner up with a best throw of 54.07m, while Coppinger was the runner-up in the women’s 800m with a time of 2:11.63.
Up next, the Jayhawks will host the 101st Kansas Relays on April 18-20 at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas.
