JACKSONVILLE, Illinois – The Ripon track and field programs opened up their Midwest Conference Outdoor Track and Field title defenses on Friday, getting off to great starts at the 2024 MWC Outdoor Championships hosted by Illinois College at England Stadium.
Through one day, the Red Hawk men and women are both leading the pack – the women have 54 points, while the men have 47. Monmouth (51 points) closely trails Ripon on the women's side, while Illinois College (42 points) is in second place in the men's standings.
With continued success on Saturday, the Red Hawk men will be in position to win their third consecutive outdoor conference team title, while the women look to successfully defend their 2023 MWC outdoor crown.
Ripon won five individual event titles on day one:
Dameco Walker won his second career outdoor MWC title in the long jump with a jump of 7.59m, while
Alison DeNamur was the 10K champion in 37:41.32 and
Jenny Cortes won the 1500-meter run in 4:41.89. In field events,
Bridget Finn won the javelin with a throw of 34.51m and
Isaac San Diego won the pole vault (4.60m).
From the jump, Ripon produced solid performances between both the men and women, earning heaps of All-Midwest Conference honors in the process. DeNamur's teammate,
Mikayla Flyte, was the 10K runner-up in 38:30.05. A third Red Hawk received top-eight honors in the 10K as
Gabby Allard finished fourth with a time of 40:03.25. Moments later,
Isabelle Willett placed eighth in the 1500 with a time of 4:57.68.
In the men's 10K,
Matt Seeber was the league's runner-up with a time of 32:07.56. Also in long-distance on the men's side,
Jacob Jumbeck and
Rainier Villanueva took seventh and eighth with times of 4:00.12 and 4:01.56 in the men's 1500-meter run, respectively.
Many additional Red Hawks qualified for finals on Saturday.
Dorian Phillips qualified for Saturday's 110-meter hurdles finals (16.27) while
Bridget Finn did the same in the women's 100-meter hurdles (16.34). She also qualified in the 400-meter hurdle prelims with a time of 1:07.63.
Jacob Davies produced a time of 50.88 in the 400-meter prelims to advance to Saturday, while
Madylyn Woyak (1:02.24) and
Devin Ibarra (1:02.38) did the same in the women's 400-meter dash.
In addition to Finn,
Kiki Sherman (1:13.53) and
Nicole Arnhold (1:15.82) also advanced to Saturday's 400-meter hurdle finals.
Three men punched tickets to Saturday's competitive 100-meter dash finals:
Jacoby Cefalu (10.96),
Dameco Walker (11.01) and
Logan Vander Galien (11.19) all were in Friday's top-eight. In the women's 100-meter prelims,
Sidney Hoffa earned the right to run on Saturday with a 12.93 performance. Hoffa also advanced to Saturday's 200-meter finals with a time of 26.43 in Friday's prelims, while the freshman took eighth in the long jump with a mark of 5.12m.
The men's 200-meter prelims were kind to Ripon with two advancing to Saturday's finals: Walker (22.54) and Cefalu (22.61) will each race on Saturday in the 200.
Kalyn Otzelberger took third in the shot put with a toss of 11.93m, while
Ben Fisher came in fourth in the men's long jump (6.91m) and
Heleyna Weiss took sixth in the women's long jump (5.20m).
Noah Hanson (40.20m) and
Braedy Picard (40.03m) each performed well in the discus with sixth and seventh-place finishes, respectively.
UP NEXT
Day two of the MWC Outdoor Track and Field Championships begins at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday (May 11) from England Stadium.
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