👟 Kansas Celebrates Senior Day at the Rock Chalk Classic Saturday

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas men’s and women’s track and field teams celebrated 22 seniors at the Rock Chalk Classic at Rock Chalk Park on Saturday, which marked the final home meet of the 2021-22 season for the Jayhawks.

Among the seniors were: Alexys Barton, Zach Bradford, Khristen Bryant, Ryan Butler, Julianna Castillo, Grant Downes, Colin Dwyer, Adia Eberle, Alexandra Emilianov, George Evans, Honour Finley, Eric Gawlick, Sommer Herner, Talley Hill, Mariah Kuykendoll, Konrad Marshall, Jelani Pierre, Jake Ralston, Clifford Robinson III, Kyle Rogers, Michael Ronzone, Erin Sermons and student manager Emma Palmer.

In addition to the senior recognition, Kansas celebrated 14 event victories on Saturday.

Kansas began the day with the field events, where senior George Evans got off to a strong start by winning the men’s discus with a throw of 54.70m (179-7 ft.). Kansas senior Alexandra Emilianov would follow up Evans with a win of her own in the women’s discus, throwing 57.83m (189-8 ft.).

In the men’s high jump, freshman Devin Loudermilk made a good first impression at his first meet at Rock Chalk Park by jumping a personal best 2.13m (6-11.75 ft.), winning the men’s high jump.

Kansas also claimed a pair of victories in the men’s and women’s shot put, with junior Patrick Larrison winning the men’s shot put with a throw of 18.28m (59-11.75 ft.) and Emilianov winning the women’s with 15.66m (51-4.5 ft.).

On the track, sophomore Michael Joseph ran a solid race in the men’s 200 meters, winning in 21.19. In the very next race, sophomore Lona Latema won the women’s 1,500 meters in 4:27.90, fresh off her 3,000-meter steeplechase victory at the Drake Relays on Thursday.

Kansas closed out the meet with an action-packed series of invitational events and relays, including the women’s invitational 800 meters. In that race, Avryl Johnson ran the fastest time of 2:08.16 to win the event. In the women’s 4×400 meter relay, the team of Mariah Kuykendoll, Ahmya McKeithan, Anna Siemens and Honour Finley teamed up to win the event in 3:39.48.

With only road meets ahead of the Jayhawks, they will travel to Manhattan, Kansas on Saturday, May 7 to compete in the Ward Haylett Invitational, before embarking for postseason competition.