Baker Track & Field Teams Both Finish Sixth, Play Host to 2024 Heart Outdoor Championships
BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Hosting the conference meet for the first time since 2018, the Baker men's and women's track teams came away with a combined nine all-conference finishes at the 2024 Heart Outdoor Track & Field Conference Championships, presented by WinWon Technologies, which were held in Baldwin City this past weekend.
With a total of 12 conference teams, including Baker, competing in Baldwin City, the BU men's and women's squads both finished sixth in the team standings of their respective championship with the men totaling 71 points and improving on their ninth-place outing from last year's meet. The Wildcat women tallied 49 points, finishing just ahead of Grand View (46) and matching their placing from 2023 when they also finished in sixth.
The Wildcats boasted five runner-up honorees with Kameron Glasper, Gage Hiebert, Naomi Kilson, Aidan Massey and McLane Rawie all earning second-place finishes, while Haley Carter, Julie Coffey, Jaden Vohs and Trot Wood each earned bronze medals at the two-day championship.
On Friday, Hiebert and Coffey gave Baker a javelin medal in both the men's and women's competition with Hiebert going over 60 meters (60.22m) to place second and Coffey (38.75m) marking her best throw since the season-opener.
Following in Friday's field events was Rawie, who had a season-best jump in the long jump with a distance of 7.28 meters.
Massey and Carter closed out day one action by taking second and third, respectively, in the 10K with Massey running a time of 32:53.73 and Carter going 40:51.95 in the women's race. Carter added a seventh-place finish in the 5K on Saturday.
Vohs delivered another medal for the BU distance crew on Saturday with a third-place showing in the 1,500m after finishing just past the four-minute mark (4:03.20).
Highlighting things in the field on Saturday, Glasper earned his first top-three finish as a Wildcat with a second place in the discus, coming on personal-best throw of 47.70m. Overall for the weekend, Glasper marked personal bests in three of his four events with a 45.78m in the javelin and a 45.18m in the hammer throw.
After securing her spot in the finals in Friday's prelims, Kilson went on to clock a 12.57 and claim second in the 100m on Saturday. She just missed out on a second podium finish in the long jump where her best distance (5.60m) placed her fourth in the event.
Wood, a freshman from Gardner, Kan., went 49.07 and came in third in the men's 400m race.
Also chipping in on the scoring and receiving honorable-mention honors were Rachel Sterner, Kiley Hawk, Rylee Lansdown, Anthony Davis, Caleb Nelson and Dontez Carr. Carr (long jump), Lansdown (400H) and Howard (110H) each just missed the podium with fourth-place finishes in their respective events, while Nelson took fifth in the men's javelin and Sterner (800m), Hawk (race walk) and Davis (10K) all came away with sixth-place showings.
The 4x800-meter relay was the marquee relay event for both Wildcat teams as the men's squad of Vohs, Wyatt Allen, Jacob McGlasson, and Cutter Meade ran a combined time under eight minutes (7:57.33), while the women's team of Sterner, Natalie Kennedy, Jana Landreth, and Peyton Peterson also took fifth with a time of 10:01.77.
Up next, Baker will set its sights on the 2024 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships with the field of national qualifiers being announced on May 17. This year's NAIA outdoor meet will be held on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University on May 22-24 in Marion, Ind.
With Howard hitting an NAIA 'B' standard in the 110-meter hurdles this weekend, the Wildcats boast four athletes who have qualified for nationals with Hiebert and Nelson both qualifying in the javelin and Rawie, who qualified in the long jump.
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