Track & Field Ready for Memphis Invite Friday and Saturday

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast track & field heads to Memphis, Tennessee for the Memphis Invitational at the Billy J. Murphy Track and Field Complex Friday May 2 through Saturday May 3.

Friday’s field events begin at 2:00 p.m. CST, with the women’s long jump and the track events are slated for 6:00 p.m. with the women’s 1500m run. Day two of the meet is scheduled for 11:45 a.m., with the women’s 100m hurdles and will finish at 3:30 p.m. with the men’s 4x400m.

Where We Rank

For each individual event the top 48 performances will be accepted into the NCAA regional which is broken up into East and West. For each relay event, the top 24 relay teams will be accepted into the competition. The top 24 performances in the combined events (Heptathlon and Decathlon) are accepted directly into the Championships. 

The sport is broken up into nine regions, SEMO is in the Midwest Region which includes all the Division One schools from Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Southeast has four marks ranked in the top 50 of the country, 28 marks ranked in the top 25 in the midwest, 14 marks ranked first in the OVC, and 49 performances in the top five in the Ohio Valley Conference.

In the high jump, Luke Hatfield Jackson is ranked 24th in the NCAA, sixth in the Midwest and first in the OVC, achieving a mark of 7′ 0.5″ at the Georgia Tech Invitational. In the long jump, Hatfield Jackson ranks eighth in the region and first in the OVC with a distance of 24′ 7.25″ which he achieved at the Crimson Tide Invitational.

Paden Lewis ranks 43rd in the nation, 11th in the region, and first in the conference in the hammer throw with a distance of 212′ 1″ with the mark being achieved at the Pacesetter Sports Invitational. Lewis also ranks 49th in the nation, 12th in the region and first in the OVC in shot put with a mark of 60′ 1″. Lewis ranks 23rd in the region and first in the conference in discus throwing a distance of 177′ 3″.

Anna Thomason ranks 29th in the nation, seventh in the region, and first in the OVC in the heptathlon, getting 5260 points at the Gibson Invitational. Thomason also ranks 13th in the Midwest and first in the Ohio Valley Conference in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.80. 

In the 400m, Sydney Burdine ran a 54.02 to be ranked 10th in the Midwest.

In the 10,000m, Noah Little ranks first in the OVC with a time of 30:27.11.

Lexie Dockstader ranks 25th in the Midwest with a time of 37:59.39 in the 10,000m.

With a distance of 49′ 7.25″ Kenyon Johnson ranks 11th in the region in triple jump.

Brianna Dixon ranks 14th in the Midwest in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.82. Dixon is also ranked 25th in the midwest and first in the conference in high jump, clearing a height of 5′ 7.25″.

Marcus Gordon ranks 21st in region in the 400m hurdles with a time of 53.94.

In the 400m hurdles Laila Hardin ran a 59.41 time to be ranked ninth in the Midwest and first in the OVC.

The 4x400m relay team of Primeau, Fuller, Splitt, and Mygatt combined for a time of3:18.77, ranking 21st in the region.

Burdine, Lester, Dwaah, and Hardin ran a 3:48.82 in the 4x400m relay to be ranked 15th in the Midwest region. 

Collin Beers cleared a height of 16′ 4.75″ in pole vault, earning 19th in the regional rankings and Sullivan Gleason vaulted over a height of 16′ 2″ for 24th in the region.

19th in the region and first place in the OVC women’s pole vault rankings is held by Clara Billing, who cleared a height of 13′ 4.5″.

Aarion Jackson cleared a distance of 23′ 7.25″ to be ranked 24st in the Midwest in long jump.

Kenyon Johnson ranks 11th in the region in triple jump with a distance of 49′ 7.25″.

Luke Busateri ranks 13th in the Midwest Region in the triple jump with a distance of 49′ 1.75″.

In the hammer throw Makenzie Williams threw for a distance of 189′ 5″ to take 17th in the region and first place in the Ohio Valley Conference rankings. Williams also ranks 19th in the region in discus with a distance of 160′ 11″.

Andreese Ortiz ranks 23rd in the region in discus, throwing a distance of 152′ 8″

Josiah Kilgore ranks 16th in the region and first in the conference in javelin throwing for a distance of 194′ 3″.

Throwing for a distance of 144′ 0″, Kennedy Zgaynor ranks 20th in the Midwest and first in the conference in javelin.

Tayler Gudde ranks 25th in region in the heptathlon with a point total of 4380.

Jake Casey ranks 20th in the region in the decathlon with a point total of 6077. 

Team Rankings

The Southeast Missouri men’s track and field team is ranked 152nd in the nation with 1.50 points coming from Luke Hatfield Jackson’s high jump (7′ 0.5″) and Paden Lewis’ hammer throw mark of 212′ 1″ and shot put of 60′ 1″.

The Southeast Missouri women’s track and field team is ranked 157th in the nation with 0.70 points coming from Anna Thomason’s 5260 points in heptathlon. 

The men’s team is ranked 18th in the Midwest Region with 103.09 total points and first in the conference with 1,115.14 points, ahead of Little Rock with 1,114.89 points.

The men’s squad teams that are ranked in the top 50 in the nation are the discus team (39th), high jump (33rd), long jump team (35th), and the shot put team (33rd).

The women’s team is ranked 20th in the Midwest Region with 91.76 total points and first in the OVC with 1,081.54 points, ahead of Little Rock in second with 934.87 points.

The women’s squad teams that are ranked in the top 50 in the nation are the hammer throw team (24th), the javelin team (38th), and the shot put team (44th). 

Weekly Awards

Laila Hardin earned Female Track Athlete of the Week for the third straight week in a row as she placed seventh out of 53 runners in the 400m Hurdles, running a time of 1:00.53 that ranks sixth all time in SEMO records. Hardin also set a new personal record in the 400m with a time of 55.95 that earned eighth out of 61 runners. Additionally, Hardin was part of the 4x400m team that took second out of 17 running a 3:46.01, a season best time for the team and a time that ranks first in the OVC.

Luke Hatfield Jackson tabbed his third Male Field Athlete of the Week, producing a high jump that took first out of 21 competitors. Hatfield Jackson cleared 7′ 1.75″ in the high jump, which ranks him 15th in the NCAA, first in the OVC, and second all time in SEMO records. Additionally, in the long jump, Hatfield Jackson set a mark of 23′ 4.50″ to take ninth in the event out of 38 competitors.

Kennedy Zgaynor claims her third Female Freshman of the Week of the season, placing fifth out of 29 in the javelin with a throw of 136 ‘0″. This mark ranks Zgaynor first in the OVC in the javelin.

Looking Ahead

After the Memphis Invite the track team will be split between the Billy Hayes Invite in Bloomington, Ind. and the Arkansas Twilight in Fayetteville, Ark.