It took a few weeks, but Jaclyn Sill finally received her championship T-Shirt.
All it took was a little help from her friends.
After being denied an individual championship by teammate Kara Euler in the 400-meter dash, Sill combined with Euler to help the Emporia State 4x400 relay team take first place at the Papa John’s D-II Challenge at Welch Stadium on Sunday.
“It’s always nice to come out and run against conference competition and beat them,” Sill said. “There’s a lot of talent at Central, at Pittsburg, at Southwest Baptist. It’s fun to line up with them and beat them.”
The win capped a solid day for the Hornets, as the ESU men took fourth at the meet with 101 points, while the women took fifth with 106 points.
Sill was able to overcome her runner-up blues on Sunday by leading off the 4x400 relay.
The junior had posted good times all year in the 200- and 400-meter races only to finish just behind Euler in each of those events. In fact, the only time Sill has beaten Euler is when the two have run in separate heats, meaning she still hasn’t beaten her head-to-head.
It’s gotten to the point where Sill has even received some good-natured ribbing from her father.
“My Dad’s asked me, ‘Do you tell yourself that she’s always going to beat you?’” Sill said with a laugh, “and I say, ‘No, I don’t think so.’”
It was even tougher to escape the Euler shadow in the relay on Sunday, as when running the first leg of the 4x400, Sill was misidentified on the P.A. system and was called — you guessed it — Kara Euler.
“A lot of people confuse us with the dark hair and same build, so it’s OK,” Sill said. “People do that all the time. They look at me in the face and say, ‘Hey Kara,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not Kara.’
“She’s got a twin, and it’s not me.”
It didn’t stop Sill from grabbing an early lead before Danielle Sedivy — who has been battling through leg problems — lengthened that advantage on the second leg.
Euler ran the third leg before handing off to cross country and indoor mile All-American Jonel Rossbach.
“I was so nervous,” Rossbach said. “I was telling myself, ‘Nobody can catch me. I can’t lose this. My team got me in first. I’ve got to hold it.’”
The junior did just that, helping ESU finish in a time of 3:54.10, more than two seconds better than second-place Central Missouri.
In all, ESU had five individual championships, six provisional qualifiers and also the meet’s only automatic qualifier.
Andy Vogelsberg took the automatic berth, earning first place with a toss of 231 feet, 4 inches in the javelin.
The senior reached the 70-meter mark twice — a length he hadn’t hit yet this season.
“I just wasn’t able to get over that hump, and I finally did it,” Vogelsberg said. “It’s definitely a good feeling.”
Vogelsberg was able to stay consistent after hitting 228 feet, 4 inches on Monday at the State Farm Relays.
He earned Male Athlete of the Meet Honors on Sunday.
“It’s good that it’s not like a fluke,” Vogelsberg said. “Last week my series in finals was really good. This week my series was good. It’s really encouraging.”
Dustin Andrews had the other men’s championship, leaping 6 feet, 8 3/4 inches to win the high jump.
On the women’s side, Rossbach provisionally qualified in the 800-meter run, winning the event with a 2:13.40.
Euler took the other title, winning the 400-meter run with a time of 56.72 seconds.
In that race, she edged second-place Sill by 31 hundredths of a second.
“I think (Jaclyn) wants to say someday that she can be the top person,” ESU track and field coach Dave Harris said. “Until this year, I think she was really naive about her own talent and abilities. Her attitude was, ‘Oh if I do good that’s fine. If I don’t do good, I tried my best.’
“Now I see in Jaclyn a real competitor. She gives Kara a run for her money every time.”
Other provisional qualifiers for ESU came from Trent Olivier (discus and shot put), Tyson Allen (javelin), Damon Birk (discus) and Emily Morgan (javelin).
Harris also was pleased with some of the performances of his younger athletes.
Freshmen Larry Beamon, Kyle Mann and Derius Garner combined with sophomore Craig Saalfeld for a third-place finish in the 4x400 relay.
Freshman Brooke Kent also contributed, scoring in the 100-meter dash and long jump and anchoring the women’s third-place 4x100 relay team.
“That’s the kind of competitiveness you need in these scored meets, where people are trying to make finals and are trying to make a difference,” Harris said. “We’re going to have to build off those people in the next couple of years.”
ESU will participate in the Kansas Relays this week in Lawrence, competing Thursday through Saturday.
D-II Challenge
Sunday at Emporia
Women’s Team Scores
Place School Points
1. Pittsburg State 130
2. Truman 118
3. Central Missouri 115.67
4. Fort Hays State 109
5. Emporia State 106
6. Southwest Baptist 59
7. Nebraska Kearney 54
8. Missouri-Rolla 52
9. St. Cloud State 29.33
10. Chadron State 11
11. Augustana 6
12. Wayne State 3
13. South Dakota 2
Men’s Team Scores
Place School Points
1. Central Missouri 148
2. Fort Hays State 131
3. Missouri-Rolla 108
4. Emporia State 101
5. Pittsburg State 100
6. Nebraska Kearney 89
7. Truman 64
8. St. Cloud State 28
8. Southwest Baptist 28
10. Bemidji State 10
11. Grand Valley St. 5
12. Chadron State 3
Women’s 100 Meter Dash
Preliminaries
3 Kent, Brooke 12.57
8 Nichols, Lynnsey 12.79
Finals
4 Kent, Brooke 12.68
6 Nichols, Lynnsey 12.82
Women 200 Meter Dash
3 Euler, Kara 25.19
4 Sill, Jaclyn 25.52
10 Nichols, Lynnsey 26.30
Women 400 Meter Dash
1 Euler, Kara 56.72
2 Sill, Jaclyn 57.03
Women 800 Meter Run
1 *Rossbach, Jonel 2:13.40
Women 400 Meter Hurdles
3 Folk, Aubrey 1:06.34
Women 4x100 Meter Relay
3 Emporia State
Euler, Nichols, Sill, Kent 48.17
Women 4x400 Meter Relay
1 Emporia State
Sill, Sedivy, Euler, Rossbach 3:54.10
Women High Jump
2 Robinson, Jennifer 1.65m
Women Long Jump
3 Kent, Brooke 5.41m
5 Robinson, Jennifer 5.38m
7 Nichols, Lynnsey 5.26m
8 Green, Ryan 5.21m
11 Koerner, Chrissy 5.02m
Women Triple Jump
6 Koerner, Chrissy 10.80m
7 Robinson, Jennifer 10.56m
Women Shot Put
7 Pannbacker, Molly 12.14m
9 Grote, Stephanie 11.97m
12 Weilert, Linzi 11.43m
Women Discus Throw
8 Grote, Stephanie 37.89m
10 Pannbacker, Molly 37.09m
Women Hammer Throw
11 Weilert, Linzi 40.55m
Women Javelin Throw
3 *Morgan, Emily 40.95m
6 Philips, Connie 39.41m
14 Green, Ryan 29.16m
Men 100 Meter Dash
Preliminaries
3 Lee, Travis 10.97
11 Beamon, Larry 11.38
Finals
8 Lee, Travis 18.02
Men 200 Meter Dash
3 Garner, Derius 22.12
14 Beamon, Larry 22.79
Men 400 Meter Dash
4 Garner, Derius 48.51
10 Gilstrap, Modesto 50.36
12 Mann, Kyle 51.13
13 Saalfeld, Craig 51.16
15 Hemphill, James 51.46
Men 800 Meter Run
8 Stephens, Michael 1:56.94
16 Heinicke, Jonathan 2:00.99
Men 1500 Meter Run
8 Camien, Shea 4:06.45
Men 10000 Meter Run
5 Ternes, Brock 33:49.40
8 Summers, Marcus 34:46.10
Men 110 Meter Hurdles
Preliminaries
9 Bertsche, Roger 15.63
Men 3000 Meter Steeplechase
2 Delmott, Skyler 9:43.13
13 Gibson, David 10:46.79
Men 4x100 Meter Relay
3 Emporia State
Garner, Lee, Beamon, Bertsche 43.18
Men 4x400 Meter Relay
3 Emporia State
Garner, Beamon, Mann, Saalfield 3:20.89
Men High Jump
1 Andrews, Dustin 2.05m
3 Saalfeld, Craig 2.00m
10 O’Brien, Marshall 1.85m
Men Long Jump
9 Loyd, Dustin 6.43m
Men Triple Jump
7 Marshall, Douglas 13.87m
Men Shot Put
6 *Olivier, Trent 16.20m
9 Jones, Corey 15.89m
10 Birk, Damon 15.66m
Men Discus Throw
3 *Olivier, Trent 50.58m
4 *Birk, Damon 49.07m
8 Vogelsberg, Andy 44.92m
18 Owens, Anthony 35.89m
Men Hammer Throw
4 Olivier, Trent 50.99m
11 Birk, Damon 44.44m
Men Javelin Throw
1 **Vogelsberg, Andy 70.51m
2 *Allen, Tyson 63.17m
** NCAA Automatic Qualifying Mark
*NCAA Provisional Qualifying Mark