Maybe now the Emporia State track and field coaches will believe Josh Honeycutt when he makes a prediction.
Before Sunday’s Papa John’s D-II Challenge at Welch Stadium, Honeycutt said he told ESU head coach Dave Harris he would break the school record in the triple jump, saying it “just felt like that kind of day.”
The freshman from Iola had to have made a believer out of Harris and anyone else who watched him on his final jump of the day, as he leaped to a distance of 50 feet, 7 1/2 inches, breaking a 42-year-old school record set by Richard Boehringer (50-2) by 5 1/2 inches.
“I don’t know if my coach took it seriously or not, but I told him I was going for it,” said Honeycutt, who automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with the mark. “I set outrageous goals for myself, but that’s what I’ve got to do.
“I just had a lot of adrenaline, and after I landed past the long jump board on my second jump, I knew I was way out there. It felt good.”
Honeycutt also jumped 22-5 to place fifth in the long jump, and for his efforts, he was named the men’s field athlete of the meet.
He helped lead an ESU charge that saw the Hornets win 10 events overall, as both the women’s and men’s squads placed second behind Central Missouri in the team standings.
The ESU women had a trio of double-event champions, as Jonel Rossbach took the title in both the 1,500-meter and the 3,000-meter runs, Brooke Kent won the 100-meter dash and the long jump and Jaclyn Sill took the 400-meter run and also anchored ESU’s title-winning 4x400 relay team.
Rossbach took the 1,500 victory in a time of 4 minutes, 40.58 seconds and then became just the fourth ESU woman to break 10 minutes in the 3,000 when she won the race by nearly a minute in a time of 9:59.37. Both of her victories were provisional-qualifying times, earning her the women’s track athlete of the meet.
As for Kent, her showing was made all the more impressive by the fact that she was battling a stomach illness all day and still managed to leave a two-time champion. In fact, her 100-meter time of 11.99 seconds — which was a provisional-qualifying mark — made her just the fourth ESU woman to run a sub-12-second 100.
“My 100, I felt right on,” said Kent, who also won the long jump with a leap of 18-10 1/2. “My knees were up, and the race was really great.
“That was exciting to go under 12 (seconds). That’s the best I’ve ever gone. I think the training I’ve been through has definitely been so much better than it has been before, and I’m just now starting to get to where I’m feeling really good right now.”
Sill won the 400 in a time of 58.96 seconds, while the 4x400 relay team won in a time of 4:01.24.
Connie Philips was the other individual event winner for the ESU women, taking the javelin title with a throw of 138-6 — a provisional-qualifying distance.
Elsewhere on the men’s side, Emporia State’s final two championships came from high jumper Dustin Andrews and distance runner Eric Wellman.
Andrews took the high jump title with a clearance of 6-8 3/4 to earn a provisional mark. He finished 2 inches ahead of teammate Alex Pyle, who jumped 6-6 3/4.
“There wasn’t a lot of jumpers, but I just did the same thing that I do at every meet, even though it is our home meet,” Andrews said. “I’ve been doing this for so long that it’s kind of become routine, so I just go out there and have fun and just go jump. I let the hard work I put in prior to the meet do what it needs to do.”
Wellman won ESU’s final event championship in the 5,000-meter run, winning in a time of 15:31.59.
Other notable performances for ESU were:
F Jennifer Robinson hit a provisional mark in the long jump with a leap of 18-5 to finish third. She also cleared 5-3 in the high jump to place fourth.
F Molly Pannbacker had a pair of third-place finishes in the shot (41-3) and discus (133 feet).
F Kenton Lonberger provisionally qualified in both the 100- and 200-meter dahes with second-place finishes in each event. He ran the 100 in 11.54 seconds and the 200 in 21.43 seconds.
F Damon Birk placed in three events and had a provisional qualifier in the shot put, where he had a toss of 53-7 3/4 to place second. He was fifth in the hammer and sixth in the discus.
F Doug Marshall finished third in both the long jump and triple jump.
F Skyler Delmott placed second in the 10,000-meter run.
The Emporia State women finished just six points behind Central Missouri in the team standings, as the Jennies won the team title with 126 points. The Central Missouri men ran away with the team title, scoring 162 points, while ESU was second with 126.
The next action for ESU will be the Kansas Relays this weekend in Lawrence.