Huskies place fourth at Mark Schuck Open

Friday, January 31

Mankato, MN

St. Cloud State

Mark Schuck Multi & Open

Photo by: Brad Olson

2/3/2020 9:28:00 AM | Women's Track & Field

Results

MANKATO, MINN. – The St. Cloud State University track and field team continued its outstanding return to the 2019-20 season. This past weekend, the Huskies traveled to Mankato, Minnesota to partake in the Mark Shuck Open and a Multis, a meet that featured nearly the entirety of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). Thanks to several outstanding individual performances, St. Cloud State finished fourth in the meet as a team with 81.5 total points after the two-day meet.

The Huskies saw an individual place in nearly every event they competed in over the course of Friday and Saturday, both in the running and field events. Emelia Burris (Woodale, Ill. / Fenton) provided one of the big highlights of the weekend, as she won the long jump competition with a jump of 5.53 meters. That jump currently ranks fifth in the NSIC, putting her in a place to compete for All-Conference honors at the NSIC Indoor Track and Field Championships in late February.

Joining Burris in the top-8 in the event was her teammate Abby Jungwirth (Forest Lake, Minn./ Forest Lake). The senior from Forest Lake, Minnesota finished third behind a jump of 5.38 meters, while sophomore jumper Mauria Oldham (Chicago, Ill. / Lincoln Park) had a meet to remember, as she finished in fifth place in long jump behind a personal record (PR) jump of 5.0 meters.

St. Cloud State saw similar success in triple jump, as Maya Taylor (Oswego, Ill. / Oswego East), Jungwirth and Parker Buske (Madison, Wis. / West) all recorded top-8 finishes in the event. Taylor led the way with a third place finish at 11.19 meters, while Jungwirth and Buske finished fourth and fifth with jumps of 11.13 and 11.11 meters respectively.

In pentathlon, sophomore Victoria Czech (Chippewa Falls, Wis. / Chippewa Falls) recorded the first top-8 finish of her career, as she finished in seventh place with 2883 points. The sophomore's top events with the 60m hurdles, where she won her heat with a time of 9.37, shot put and long jump, all of which she finished in the top eight competitors. Fellow sophomore Claire Shae (Excelsior, Minn. / Chanhassen) also earned points toward the overall team score with a sixth place finish in high jump at 1.53 meters.

The Huskies saw the same amount of success in the track events, particular in sprints and middle distance. In the 60 meter dash, both Emma Baynes (Mankato, Minn. / Mankato East) and Burris qualified for finals after finishing in the top-2 in their respective heats. Baynes took second in the event with a time of 7.65, while Burris was fifth, capping off her impressive weekend with a time of 7.85 in the premiere sprint event.

Baynes additionally impressed in the 200 meter dash, finishing in third with a time of 25.77. She was equally impressive in the prelims, as she won her heat and clocked a top-3 time with an identical 25.77 on the clock.

St. Cloud State saw a top-8 finish in both the 400 and 600 meter runs, as Kaylee Gessay (Waukesha, Wis. / Waukesha South), Bridget Brown (Elk River, Minn. / Elk River) and Leighten Fischer (Iola, Wis. / Iola-Scandinavia) contributed to the team score. Gessay finished fourth in the 400 with a time of 1:01.55, while Brown and Fischer finished fourth and fifth in the 600 with times of 1:40.44 and 1:40.72 respectively.

Gracie Elsenpeter (Maple Lake, Minn. / Maple Lake) finished third in the 60m hurdles over the weekend thanks to two outstanding performances in prelims and finals. After running a 9.33 to win her heat, the first year shaved 23 seconds off her time to take third in finals with a time of 9.10.

The Huskies additionally earned points in the 4x400 relay, as the team of Mikayla Rice (Racine, Wis. / Horlick), Karla Encarnacion (Caguas, Puerto Rico / American Military Academy), Autum Shurbert-Hetzel (Stevens Point, Wis. / Stevens Point Area) and Clara Welhouse (Green Bay, Wis. / Southwest) finished in fourth place with a time of 4:10.18.

Thanks to these and several other strong performances, St. Cloud State finished fourth in the meet as a team with 81.5 total team points. The Huskies will return to action on February 14-15, as they compete in two separate meets: The SDSU Classic in Brookings, South Dakota and the CSB/SJU Invitational in Collegeville, Minnesota.