WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Missouri State track and field team concluded its indoor regular season here Friday at the UCM Classic in Warrensburg, Mo.
 
The competition featured a small, Missouri-based field as teams prepped for their respective upcoming conference championships.
 
"Given the shortage of meets for the indoor schedule, it was really good for us to line up and compete one more time," said head coach Jordan Fife.  "For a lot of our team, the meets have helped us to get in shape and work on the technical side of events that you can't replicate in practice."
 
The field events led off the meet as Jessica Haney followed up her historic performance from the Gorilla Classic (Feb. 13) with a 1.74m (5-8.50) clearance in the high jump to finish first.  Rachel Lacey set a new personal best during her series, jumping over the 1.54m (5-0.50) mark.
 
In the long jump, Brooke Jenkins started her day off on the right foot with her winning jump of 5.67m (18-7.25) coming on her first attempt.  Jenkins' jump puts her atop the Missouri Valley Conference leaderboard, tying her with UNI's Aleenah Marcucci.  Rochelle Etienne followed in sixth by marking a 4.96m (16-3.25).
 
Olivia Richards recorded a 10.49m (34-5.00) in the triple jump and teammate Blair Sebastian followed right behind with a 10.31m (33-10.0).
 
Six Bears competed in the mile with Ashley Rolewicz (5:19.75) and Adyson Delaney (5:21.52) pacing the pack to finish second and third, respectively.  Lillie Kaempfe (5:39.83), Alex Hamre (5:41.71), Riley Lourens (5:48.64) and Natalie Clayton (5:56.06) wrapped up the MSU contingent in the first of two individual distance races.
 
In the 3,000-meter run, it was Delaney (10:47.94) and Shelby Palmer (10:53.40) to lead the charge with Delaney finishing fourth and Palmer in fifth.
 
Rochelle Etienne achieved a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles, racing to a 9.10 in the event finals after finishing among the top-six times in the prelims.
 
Coach Taryn Smiley's sprinting group took three of the top-five spots in the 60-meter dash with Nakaja Weaver (7.75), Calandra Henry (7.82) and A'Mira Askew (8.05) placing first, third and fifth, respectively.  Askew went on to finish among the field's top runners in the 200-meter dash as well, registering a 26.94 to place third.
 
Mackenzie Ihasz finished first in the 400-meter run, stopping her clock at the 1:00.09 point.  Manuela Ngo Tonye Nyemeck (1:01.86) followed in third while O'Shayla Muldrow (1:03.06), Sophie Karney (1:04.83) and Emily Graham (1:09.17) rounded out the race.
 
MSU had four runners cross the finish line consecutively in the 800-meter run with Edna Dar (2:16.19) claiming the top spot just ahead of teammates Sierra Williams (2:16.42), Taylor Holtz (2:23.86) and Ashley Rolewicz (2:25.23).
 
"We usually take this weekend to rest before the conference meet, but we felt like it was important to keep building some momentum and continuing to put ourselves in a great position heading into next weekend," added Fife.  "Putting the uniform on and lining up for competition has been key due to the long layoff between meets."
 
Up next for Missouri State is the 2021 Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championship which takes place on Feb. 26-28 inside the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  The Bears finished third in the team standings at last year's Valley meet.