👟 Kansas Dominates Across the Board at LSU
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas track and field program had an extremely strong showing at the Lloyd Wills Invitational at LSU, claiming multiple victories and new personal bests.
Chandler Gibbens kept his momentum rolling for a second week in a row, this time running the 1500m and setting a new meet record in the event. He recorded a 3:48.02, which earned him the victory as well as a new personal best time.
The women’s distance crew recorded various PR’s throughout the meet. Avryl Johnson ran a 2:06.54 in the 800m for a new meet record and personal best time in the event.
Three Jayhawks made up the top four of the women’s 3000m, with freshman Tori Wingrove winning with her 10:10.71, while Makenna Anderson took third (10:22.53) and Caroline Burrow took fourth (10:31.15).
In the women’s 1500m, Lona Latema won with her 4:26.16, while Addie Coppinger claimed second place with 4:26.75.
The men’s pole vault and the men’s mid-distance crews both had top five sweeps, making for an exciting couple of events.
In the pole vault, Clayton Simms led the way with a 5.46 clearance, which set the new meet reocrd in the event, while Andrew Saloga (5.36m), Ashton Barkdull (5.36m), Jake Freidel (5.21m) and Anthony Meacham (5.21m) all filed in right behind him.
Behind Gibbens, T.J. Robinson hit a PR of 3:48.47 in the 1500m, which was good for second place and a new personal best time. Tanner Talley took third with 3:49.71, while Sawyer Schmidt (3:50.44, PR) and Justice Dick (3:53.86) took fourth and fifth, respectively.
Gabby Hoke reached a new career milestone when she cleared 4.13m (13-06 ft.) to claim the women’s pole vault victory. Samantha van Hoecke jumped her season best with a second-place mark of 3.98m, while Kade Joslin hit a new PR with her fourth-place jump of 3.83m.
The throws squad also had quite the representation in both the victory and PR categories, starting off with Oleg Klykov hitting a new PR in the hammer throw with his 66.13m mark, claiming second place overall in the event.
Dimitrios Pavlidis won the men’s discus throw with his 57.35m mark, while Patrick Larrison was right on his heels with a 55.14m throw to hit his season best. Both Jayhawks surpassed the previous meet record in this event. Joseph Kieny also competed in this event and secured fourth place with a new PR of 50.04m.
On the women’s side, Sofia Sluchaninova won the discus by hitting a new personal best of 45.76, while Tori Thomas claimed second place in both discus and shotput, with her shotput mark of 15.97m setting a new personal best as well.
Devin Loudermilk and Rylee Anderson both took the top slots in the high jump, with Loudermilk winning the men’s side at 2.13m and Anderson winning the women’s with a new outdoor PR of 1.86m.
Michael Joseph won the 400m dash with his 46.24, and he was also a part of the men’s 4×4 that took the victory later on in the day. Joseph ran anchor on a team of Ethan Fogle, Grant Lockwood and Jameir Colbert, and together, they would post a time of 3:08.38 to win it all.
Colbert unlocked a new personal best earlier in the day as well, taking second place in the 400m hurdles with his 52.92 in the event.
Up next, the Jayhawks will be hosting the 100th Kansas Relays out at Rock Chalk Park, which starts on Thursday, April 13 and runs through Saturday, April 15.
