In the second day of competition at the Big 12 Track and Field Championships in Lubbock, Texas, both of K-State’s teams have made a push to take the top spot in the overall team rankings.
Each team sits in second place with 45 points. Six events have concluded on the men’s side and seven have finished on the women’s side.
In the decathlon, Devin Dick claimed his second conference title of the season in the multi events. After finishing the first day in the lead, the senior capped off the event with a score of 7,992 points. The score was over 1,000 points higher than his seventh place finish at last year’s conference meet.
Dick’s day began with a first-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.75 seconds. He followed the performance by tying for first place in the pole vault with a jump of 15-08.50.
Reinis Kregers finished second overall behind Dick with a score of 7,618 points. The sophomore’s second day began on a good note with a first-place throw of 150-05 in the discus and 199-02 in the javelin.
However, the battle for second place was strong as Texas freshman Wolf Mahler finished only 16 points behind Kregers in the final point totals.
In the women’s heptathlon, senior Merryl Mbeng jumped up one position from the beginning of the day to take second place with 5,379 points. Her day was highlighted by a first-place finish in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:14.63.
Adding to a list of gold medal finishes on the season was Erica Twiss. The senior barely knocked off Kansas’ Sydney Conley as they jumped 20-08.00 and 20-07.75, respectively.
In the men’s long jump finals, Devin Field finished in third place. With his best jump of 25-07.50, the sophomore was just under an inch away from claiming the title.
Ryan Hershberger also claimed third place in the men’s shot put. The senior’s throw of 61-05.75 finished short of Texas’ Ryan Crouser’s record-breaking toss of 70-02.25. Crouser broke the stadium record and also topped the conference’s best mark that he set last season.
The Wildcats also had a strong performance by sophomore Dani Winters, who finished in fifth in the women’s shot put with a throw of 52-03.25.
The final day of competition resumes at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning with the women’s discus finals.
