Emporia State’s Jaclyn Sill and several of her teammates felt like they had something to prove on Saturday at the Division II Challenge.
In Emporia State’s first home meet the week before, the Hornets had a couple of their usual stars perform well, but the ones who didn’t entered the D-II Challenge with a chip on their shoulder. They left with a championship t-shirt.
After running a time she was not happy with the week before, Sill bounced back to win the 400 meters on Saturday, joining a long list of ESU champions that included Christy Weller, Katie Mona, Connie Phillips, Vincent Howze, Josh Honeycutt, Dustin Andrews, Skyler Delmott and Warren Nelson.
Sill, a two-time conference champion in the 400 meters, won for the first time this season.
“With the 400 last week I ran a bad time. I was really hoping to improve on that, plus I really wanted to feel better about my season,” Sill said. “I didn’t run indoor. I was out of eligibility. I’m a fifth-year senior, so I’m just racing back into shape right now and I kind of feel like I’m behind everyone.
“Today, it just felt like I’m finally getting back to my old self. I feel a lot more confident about this season after that.”
Also bouncing back from a poor race last week and winning her first outdoor title was Weller. The freshman improved on her time from the week before by 11 seconds to win the 800, just barely edging out teammate Kathryn Davison by 0.81 seconds.
Weller had injured her chest the week leading up to Emporia State’s first home meet, and after running one of the worst races of her life, she responded with a personal-best time of 2:17.10.
“It was hard mentally for me, because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I ran better in my first meet in high school than I ran my first meet in college,’” Weller said. “That was really embarrassing, but both the coaches talked to me that they believed in me and knew I’d get better.”
On the men’s side, Vincent Howze had the biggest comeback weekend. At the ESU Relays, Howze tripped over a hurdle in the 110-meter hurdles and skinned up his shoulder.
On Saturday, Howze won the 400-meter hurdles, finished second in the 110-meter hurdles and was named the men’s track athlete of the meet for scoring 18 points for the Hornets. He was one of six Hornets to provisionally qualify for the national meet with a time of 53.31 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles.
Several of the champions from last week’s ESU Relays repeated as winners on Saturday. Freshman Katie Mona won the 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters, winning both races by more than seven seconds. Mona took home the women’s track of the meet honors as well.
Josh Honeycutt followed his record-setting performance in the triple jump with another title. Honeycutt jumped 15.49 meters and was the only ESU athlete to earn an automatic qualifying mark. However, Honeycutt could not reach his 16.39-meter mark from the week before, which was the best jump of any collegiate athlete this season.
Honeycutt had to pull out early because his heels were sore. He tried approaching the triple jump from 18 steps back, instead of 16, and the change led to his minor injury.
“I don’t think I can control the speed quite yet, so it was more pounding on the heels,” he said. “I did it because I wanted to further it, and I figured if I get more speed going in, I could do better. I’ll probably go back to 16. We’ll see how it goes. I didn’t jump bad.”
Other provisional qualifiers for the ESU men included Andrews and Alex Pyle in the high jump. Both jumped 6 feet, 8.75 inches, and Andrews finished first because he had fewer misses.
The ESU 400-meter relay team also provisionally qualified and set a new school record. Derwin Hall, Josh Schuler, Kenton Lonberger and Sam Williams ran the relay in 40.95 seconds and finished second behind Lincoln.
Lincoln is ranked second nationally in the 400-meter relay, and the ESU men led the race at one point. The Hornets’ time was good enough for sixth nationally.
Lonberger returned on Saturday from a hamstring injury, and it was the first time the foursome has run together this season.
“Once we get our handoffs crisp, and everybody learns each other’s chemistry with the handoffs, we have a chance to win the national title,” Hall said.
Phillips also had one of the best marks on Saturday in the javelin. She won the javelin with a season-best throw of 44.02 meters. Phillips won the Challenge for the second straight season, her throw was good for eighth-best nationally this year and she also provisionally qualified.
Emporia State will split its squad this week. Selected athletes will head to California for the Mt. SAC Relays, the Asuza Pacific Invite and the VS Long Beach State Invitational. Other track and field athletes will head to Lawrence for the Kansas Relays.
Saturday at Welch Stadium
Women’s team standings
1. Central Missouri 160
2. Winona State 148
3. Emporia State 141
4. Lincoln 128
5. St. Cloud State 92
6. Northwest Missouri 12
7. Wayne State (Neb.) 11
Men’s team standings
1. Central Missouri 251
2. Emporia State 179
3. Lincoln 123
4. St. Cloud State 115
5 Wayne State (Neb.) 6
ESU women results
100-meter dash
7. Weaver 12.99
8. Nichols 13.04
200-meter dash
6. Sill 25.87
8. Kent 26.33
10. Nichols 26.58
11. Hughes-Stanton 26.59
400-meter dash
1. Sill 56.94
5. Hughes-Stanton 1:00.34
7. Baum 1:00.44
8. Wakefield-Hall 1:00.87
800 meters
1. Weller 2:17.10
2. Davison 2:17.91
5. Bookout 2:25.80
1,500 meters
1. Mona 4:43.79
3,000 meters
1. Mona 10:29.80
100-meter hurdles
2. Kent 15.49
5. Davenport 16.09
400-meter hurdles
7. Spencer 1:08.34
400-meter relay
3. Emporia State 49.11
1,600-meter relay
3. Emporia State 4:00.77
4. Emporia State 4:07.83
High Jump
8. Kent 1.50 meters
Long Jump
3. Kent 5.55 meters
8. Weaver 5.32 meters
Shot Put
5. Watkins 11.66 meters
6. Pannbacker 11.55 meters
8. Jackson 11.01 meters
Discus Throw
2. Jackson 39.92 meters
6. Pannbacker 37.00 meters
Hammer Throw
4. Jackson 45.68 meters
8. Watkins 34.72 meters
Javelin
1. *Philips 44.02 meters
3. Watkins 34.44 meters
Heptathlon
13. Davenport 3,485
14. Goff 3,129
ESU men results
100-meter dash
5. Hall, Derwin 11.07
7. Williams 38.16
200-meter dash
10. Schuler 22.55
400-meter dash
10. Beamon 52.24
800 meters
4. McGovern 1:56.45
6. Cowing 1:57.85
7. Hohmeier 1:58.31
1,500 meters
4. McGovern 4:01.43
9. Dvorak 4:20.69
5,000 meters
2. Delmott 15:41.41
110-meter hurdles
2. Howze 15.40
400-meter hurdles
1. *Howze, Vincent 53.31
5. Snyder 59.91
3,000-meter steeplechase
1. Delmott 9:33.41
2. Delmott 9:33.61
3. Hohmeier 9:52.53
4. Wayman 10:12.80
400-meter relay
2. *#Emporia State 40.95
High Jump
1. *Andrews 2.05 meters
2. *Pyle 2.05 meters
Long Jump
2. *Honeycutt 7.16 meters
5. Marshal 6.69m 21-11.50
Triple Jump
1. **Honeycutt 15.49 meters
2. Marshal 14.11 meters
Shot Put
6. SanMartin 13.29 meters
Discus
4. Roulhac 44.24 meters
7. SanMartin 36.54 meters
Hammer Throw
3. Roulhac 52.22 meters
6. Loyd 44.18 meters
8. SanMartin 40.04 meters
Javelin
1. Nelson 50.04 meters
Men Decathlon
2. Granillo 5,820
5. Davis 5,507
*Provisional mark
**Automatic mark
# School record