Lady Owls senior Madeline Emme earned her third straight bid to the NAIA Indoor National Championships thanks to her performance at the University of Central Missouri Classic on Friday.
Emme's 60-meter hurdle preliminary time of 9.24 seconds was just inside the NAIA "B' Standard mark, allowing her to qualify for the national meet. She'd go on to run a :09.32 in the final to garner third place overall.
Emme finished first in the 60-meter hurdles and long jump to vault William Woods to its third straight American Midwest Conference Indoor title on Thursday in Elsah, Illinois.
The Lady Owls tallied 207 team points, easily beating second place Park University (146). Missouri Baptist (88), Columbia College (68), Lindenwood-Belleville (38), Hannibal-LaGrange (26) and St. Louis College of Pharmacy (21) rounded out the rest of the field.
Emme earned top honors in the hurdles in a time of 9.26 seconds, then registered a long jump of 4.8 meters. With runner-up finishes in both the high jump (1.5 meters) and the triple jump (9.74), she collected AMC Field Athlete of the Meet honors for a second straight year.
Junior Petra Bethea cleared the high jump bar with a height of 1.55 meters to win the event. She prevailed in the 600-meter run with a personal-best time of 1:46.63.
Senior Lee Anna Sanders clocked a time of 19:40.9 to triumph in the 5,000-meter run. Sanders later posted a third-place time of 11:28.7 in the 3,000-meter run.
Freshman Madelyn Scrivner won the weight throw with a toss of 12.73 meters. She placed second in the shot put with a personal-best toss of 12.05 meters in being recognized as the AMC Field Athlete of the Year.
Freshman Jami Brandow clocked a time of 19:47.91 in the 5,000 to earn second place, while taking fifth in the 5,000 in 12:02.63.
Freshman Grace Young earned second place in the 800, clocking a time of 2:31.59.
Freshman Alliah McClendon clocked a second-place time of :09.34 in the 60-meter hurdles, while placing fourth in the 60-meter dash in :08.21.
Junior Dominica Prokup tallied third place in the 60-meter hurdles in :09.77, while finishing fifth in the 60-meter dash in :08.23.
Sophomore Hannah Corbin took second place in the 400-meter dash with a result of 1:02.31. Freshmen Megan Wilson (1:02.41) and Loren Brooks (1:03.89) were just behind Corbin in third and fourth place, respectively.
Freshman Jessica McIlhenny took fifth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of :28.08.
Bethea, Young, redshirt senior Alex Apperson and freshman Hannah Rutherford claimed third in the 3,200-meter relay with a result of 10:14.42.
Apperson, Rutherford, Young and junior Samantha Brolaski took third in the distance medley in 14:03.39.
A trio of William Woods men claimed first-place recognition to power them to a third-place finish in the men's standings. The Owls accumulated 106 points, trailing champion Park (161) and runner-up Lindenwood-Belleville (114).
Senior Nick Zink broke the meet record in the 400-meter dash, clocking a first-place time of :50.85. Zink, later, earned top honors in the 600 with a personal-best of 1:24.94.
Junior Adam Smith - the reigning AMC Men's Field Athlete of the Week - hit the NAIA "B' standard in the weight throw with his first-place heave of 16.68 meters.
Senior Alonzo Findley's personal best of 14.66 meters lifted him to a win in the shot put. His weight throw of 14.87 garnered him second place in that category.
Junior Rhett Cook was the 400-meter runner-up in a time of :51.36. Junior Gabrial Dos Santos clocked a second-place time of :07.02 in the 60-meter dash to set a new personal-best time.
Freshman Darrien Dickey placed third in the long jump with a mark of 6.31 meters, then earned fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 13.23.
Freshman Damion Tipler placed fourth in the high jump, clearing the bar at 1.8 meters. Senior Reid Schmit completed the 5,000-meter run in 17:30.89, good enough for fifth place.
The quartet of junior Tyler Jones, sophomore Timothy Ward and freshmen Kyle Gabrielson and Phillip Kulpinski took third in the 3,200-meter relay in a time of 8:55.32.
Gabrielson, Kulpinski, Schmit and Ward earned fifth in the distance medley relay in a time of 12:03.14, while Cook, Zink, sophomore Preston Wolfe and freshman Denver Horn ran the 1,600-meter relay in 3:34.52 to also place fifth.
Emme, Sanders, Smith and Zink will all compete at the NAIA National Indoor Championships on Thursday, March 5 in Geneva, Ohio.