DeLoach-Soukup Defends Her Long Jump Title on Day Two of the Kansas Relays

April 18, 2013

Day 2 Results: Track / Field / Multis | Day 2 Quotes |

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Janay DeLoach-Soukup highlighted day two of the 86th Kansas Relays with her elite long jump title Thursday night at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. DeLoach-Soukup posted a 6.82 meter (22’4.5″) jump in the event’s second round to take the win.

“It means a lot,” DeLoach-Soukup said of defending her title. “I’m going to keep coming back here because I love this atmosphere and the crowd is so close to you that they can give you high-fives on the way back. It was fun, so I’ll definitely be coming back next year.”

For the second night in a row, swarms of track fans crowded to the fairgrounds’ community arena after inclement weather moved the event indoors. DeLoach-Soukup claimed the downtown long jump event last year with a mark of 6.61 meters (21’8.25″).

DeLoach-Soukup, a Colorado State graduate, recorded the three best jumps of the night, posting a 6.68-meter jump in round three and a 6.70 meter (21’11.75″) jump in the final round of the night. Tori Bowie finished in second place with a 6.63 meter (21’9″) mark in the fourth round, while Funmi Jimoh (6.46 meters [21’2.5″]) finished third.

Earlier in the day, the combined events wrapped up with Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Dan Simon claiming the Jim Bausch decathlon and unattached competitor Rachael Klinger taking the Candace Mason heptathlon title.

Simon led in the point standings from the get-go as he won four of the 10 events during the two-day excursion. The Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior collected a total of 6,429 points and topped Neosho County’s Atsu Nyamadi, by 240 points.

Like Simon, Klinger led for nearly the entire two-day event as she earned her first Kansas Relays heptathlon title. A current member of the South Florida track & field team, Klinger was forced to fight through frigid and rainy conditions to top the rest of the field, but she did enough to win, collecting 4,699 points after winning two of the seven events and claiming top-five finishes in all but two of her seven outings.

A meet record fell for the second-straight season in the women’s hammer throw as a handful of professionals joined some of the nation’s top collegians in the event. Nike’s Amber Campbell took the victory with her meet-record toss of 69.66 meters (228’6″) on her third attempt of the day. The former Costal Carolina star proved her consistency as she posted three marks over 228 feet, each within two inches of each other.

On the men’s side, Drake’s Isaac Twombly edged Southern Illinois’ Bradley Sauer by only three inches to win his first Kansas Relays hammer throw title. Twombly hit a mark of 59.29 meters (194’06”) on his first throw of the day, posting a mark no other competitor would be able to match in the remaining five rounds.

The distance carnival took center stage in Thursday’s nightcap, with some of the region’s top middle distance and distance athletes going head to head on Jim Hershberger Track. Highlighting the night’s events was Kansas sophomore Evan Landes, who won the 5,000 meters with a time of 14:27.42. The time ranks the Jayhawk eighth in the Big 12 rankings this year.

A pair of athletes snagged victories in their first-career 10,000-meter races. On the women’s side, unattached competitor Jessica Macy turned in an impressive race, earing the win in 36:13.37. It was Memphis’ Dan Kuhman who ran to a win on the men’s side as the freshman completed the 6.2 mile race in 30:55.64.

The 2013 Kansas Relays will continue Friday as the high school portion of the meet gets underway. The boy’s javelin and the girl’s shot put will kick off the day at 8 a.m. and the collegiate competitions starting just after 9 a.m. with the prelims of the women’s 100-meter hurdles and the men’s 110-meter hurdles. Tune in to Jayhawk All-Access beginning at 9:30 a.m. to watch complete coverage of the day’s events and keep track of results and meet updates through the meet central page at kansasrelays.com and following on twitter at KU_Relays.

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