👟 Five Jayhawks Earn All-America Honors on Second Day of NCAA Championships
EUGENE, Ore. – Kansas track and field completed the second day of competition at the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Thursday, in which six Jayhawks earned All-America honors.
Among the Jayhawks earning second team All-America honors were Honour Finley (800 meters, 4×400 meter relay), Mariah Kuykendoll (4×400 meter relay), Satanya Wright (4×400 meter relay) and Anna Siemens (4×400 meter relay).
Senior Honour Finley raced in the women’s 800 meters semifinal out of heat two on Thursday evening. Finley opened out of lane two and crossed the 400-meter mark in eighth in 1:00.05. On the bell lap, Finley raced up two positions to come in sixth in her heat and 16th overall in 2:04.42.
Thursday’s race was just Finley’s fourth career meet racing in the 800 meters, which she closes out her KU careers as the school record holder with her time of 2:03.87 set at the NCAA West Preliminary.
After a solid first day of the decathlon on Wednesday, freshman Alex Jung returned for the final five events on Thursday, seeking a strong finish.
Jung got started in the decathlon 110-meter hurdles, where he clocked a 14.97 to earn 853 points. In the following event, Jung added 676 points in the discus with a toss of 40.58m (133-2 ft.).
Jung gained some ground in the decathlon pole vault, by jumping a decathlon best 4.91m (16-1.25 ft.), which was good for 883 points and move him into 17th overall. Jung would place 12th in the decathlon javelin with a throw of 53.24m (174-8 ft.).
Jung closed out his first-career NCAA Championship appearance in the 1,500 meters, where he finished with 7,341 points, which placed him 18th overall.
Kansas closed out the night in the 4×400 meter relay, in which the team of Kuykendoll, Siemens, Wright and Finley ran a competitive race to finish 14th in 3:34.96.
Kansas will be back in action on Saturday at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with senior Alexandra Emilianov competing in the women’s discus final and senior Rylee Anderson competing in the women’s high jump final. A full schedule of events for the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships is available here.
