On Feb. 11-12, the UNI track team headed down to Ames for the Iowa State Classic track and field meet. UNI won four events and had several other strong performances.

UNI started off the meet with a win in the women’s 60-meter dash. After finishing fifth in the preliminary to qualify for the final, Paishence Johnson won with a time of 7.60 seconds. Emily Vos picked up another win for UNI in the women’s 200-meter dash with a time of 24.76 seconds.

UNI’s other two wins came in field events. In the men’s pole vault, Matteo Capello won with a distance of 5.25 meters. Darius King picked up the win in the men-shot put for UNI at 19.67 meters, narrowly edging the next best score by 0.10. As a result of his win, he was named Missouri Valley Conference Male Field Athlete of the week.

UNI also had a few second and third-place finishes. In the men’s 60-meter hurdles, Jack Sumners narrowly finished second, just 0.07 of a second behind the first-place runner and 0.01 before third. UNI got second and third in the men-long jump. Blair Brooks got second with a jump of 7.21 meters, and Carter Morton got third with a jump of 6.93 meters. Casey Hackett finished in third place in the men-triple jump with a distance of 13.18 meters. Craig Becker finished third in the men’s 1000-meter run with a time of 2:29.65.

The Panthers will return to the UNI-Dome for the Missouri Valley Indoor Championships from  Feb. 27-28.