Levy Leads the Way on Day One of the Tyson Invite

Day 1 Results: Overall | Kansas 

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –With the help of another one of the school’s best all-time marks, senior Daina Levy saw a stellar outing in the weight throw Friday evening at the Tyson Invitational. She was joined by a pair of Jayhawk 400-meter runners who also made KU history on day one of the meet held inside the Randal Tyson Track Center.
 
Senior Daina Levy continued to add to her list of accolades in her final indoor season with a runner-up finish in the weight throw. Already the owner of the nation’s fourth-ranked throw this year, Levy posted a pair of throws over 66 feet, both in her final two trips into the ring. On her final attempt, she flung the 20-pound implement to a mark of 20.55 meters (67’5¼”), coming within just nine inches of tying the event and current NCAA leader, NC State’s Nicole Chavis. Though Levy couldn’t surpass Chavis in her final attempt, she still managed to grab the runner-up finish in the event that included three of the top-six weight throwers in the NCAA.
 
Levy’s mark also ranks as the seventh-best in school history and makes her the owner of four of the top-nine marks in the Kansas record book.
 
A pair of KU women got the weekend started off on a high note as junior Whitney Adams and freshman Nicole Montgomery posted two of the fastest indoor 400-meter dash times in Kansas history. Competing in the first of 12 heats, Montgomery and Adams both broke the 55-second barrier for the first time in their Jayhawk careers. Montgomery outpaced her elder teammate after she broke the tape in 54.43 to take third in what turned out to be the fastest of the 12 heats. Adams, who was coming off a career-best in the 800 meters last weekend at the Husker Invitational, wasn’t far behind the freshman after she completed her two laps in 54.67. Montgomery and Adam’s quarter-mile clockings earned them sixth and ninth-place finishes, respectively, out of the 47-woman field.
 
The career-best times moved Montgomery and Adams among some of the fastest indoor 400 meter runners in school history. Montgomery is now the fourth-fastest Jayhawk in the indoor event and became just the second KU freshman to finish the race in under 54.5. Adam’s time put her at sixth on the same list and has among the top-six of the school’s all-time charts in three different indoor events.
 
A freshman on the men’s side also posted the team’s fastest 400-meter time of the season after Henry Ivan ran to an indoor personal best in the event. Ivan won his heat and finished 16^th overall with his time of 48.09. The time ranks the Spanish Town, Jamaica native among the top-15 in the Big 12 this year.
 
The invitational section of the men’s pole vault close out the day for the Jayhawks and a pair of KU vaulters turned in solid showings. Freshman Paulo Benavides tallied a season-best clearance after he got over 5.31 meters (17’5″). That vault, which earned him a fifth-place finish, moved him to 15^th in the NCAA and third in the Big 12. The current league-leader and KU senior Casey Bowen matched Benavides at the 5.31 meter (17’5″) bar, but could go no further and settled for a sixth-place finish.
 
The Jayhawks will return to the Randal Tyson track Saturday for day two of the Tyson Invitational. Action will begin at 11 a.m., with the women’s pole vault. The running of the men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relays will close out the event at 4:30 p.m.
 
 
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