WARRENSBURG, Mo. - The Lincoln women's track and field team finished in third place, while the men's team took fourth place in the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association outdoor track and field championships, which concluded Sunday at Central Missouri's Walton Stadium.
The Lincoln women finished with 104 points, trailing MIAA champion Pittsburg State's 144.2 points and Missouri Southern's runner-up finish of 144 points.
The Lincoln men posted 99 points. Central Missouri won the MIAA title with 133 points, followed by Pittsburg State in second with 122 points and Missouri Southern third with 119.
In total, Lincoln was a conference champion in nine events: five for the women and four for the men.
The Blue Tigers swept title in the 100-meter dashes. Rene Medley won the women's title in 11.42 seconds, while Javan Gray was the men's champion in 10.32 seconds.
Both races were photo finishes in the finals. Gray won by one-hundredth of a second ahead of fellow teammate Raymone Campbell, while Medley finished one-thousandth of a second faster than Lindenwood's Ariel Jackson.
Kissi-Ann Brown was a triple-winner for the Lincoln women. She won the 400-meter dash in a time of 53.16 seconds, then added a first-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 57.95 seconds.
Brown also won on Lincoln's 4x400-meter relay, along with Renea Ambersley, Shanice Clarke and Christine Moss. The Blue Tigers won the race by more than eight seconds with a time of 3:37.80.
Lincoln's fifth win on the women's side came from Rusheda Blake, who took first in the triple jump with a distance of 41 feet, 2.25 inches.
For the Lincoln men, Campbell joined Gray as a double-winner. They both ran on the 4x100-meter relay, which posted a winning time of 40.71 seconds. Kizan David and Tyrese Halls ran the other two legs of the relay.
Campbell's other win came in the 200-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 20.75 seconds ahead of Gray in the finals.
Ryan Brown recorded the fourth win for the Lincoln men, taking first in the long jump with a leap of 25-11. David was runner-up in the long jump at 25-2.75.
Lincoln added two more runner-up finishes in relay events. The men's 4x400 of Halls, Mohammed Kouyate, Coy Spence and Campbell clocked a time of 3:10.44, while the women's 4x100 of Shaian Vandenburg, Medley, Ambersley and Segale Brown posted a time of 46.06 seconds.
Campbell was the MIAA men's track and field high point winner, winning two events and finishing runner-up in two more.
Other runner-up finishes came from Spence in the men's 400 hurdles (52.12 seconds), Medley in the women's 200 (23.28 seconds) and Moss in the women's 400 (53.78 seconds).
Finishing third for Lincoln were Souleyman Seck int he men's 110-meter hurdles (14.76 seconds) and Moss in both the women's 100 (11.69 seconds) and 200 (23.58 seconds).
All top-three finishers at the meet received All-MIAA honors.
Also picking up points for the Lincoln women were Ambersley, who placed fourth in the 400 (55.43 seconds) and fifth in the 200 (24.37 seconds). Dylann Core gave the Blue Tigers four of the top-eight finishers in the 400, placing eighth in 56.92 seconds.
Clarke placed fifth in the women's 400 hurdles in 1:01.37 and Melissa Tyme also took fifth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:39.28.
For the men, Damaine Dixon took fourth place in the 400 hurdles in 53.68 seconds. In the 400, Halls finished fifth in 48.14 seconds and Kouyate placed eighth in 49.22 seconds.
David came in sixth place in the men's triple jump in 49-1.5.
Lincoln is scheduled to compete next in the NCAA Division II outdoor track and field championships, which take place May 23-25 at Kingsville, Texas.
III
Three area athletes also competed during the weekend at the MIAA championships.
Central Missouri sophomore Baylie Bellin (Blair Oaks High School) finished in sixth place in the women's hammer throw with a toss of 172-9.
Southwest Baptist junior Drake Wilkerson (St. Elizabeth High School) competed in two events. He helped the Bearcats' 4x400-meter relay to a 10th-place finish in 3:21.10, while also placing 13th in the preliminaries of the 400 in 56.63 seconds.
Southwest Baptist freshman Macie Halderman (Eldon High School) came in 25th place in the women's long jump with a leap of 16-9.25.