Northwest Missouri State junior Will Haer improved on his NCAA provisional mark Friday in the pole vault as both men and women competed for the second straight weekend at the Devaney Center.

This weekend’s meet was hosted by Nebraska-Wesleyan, but still saw plenty of strong performances for both men’s and women’s squads.

The highlight of the day was Will Haer taking home the pole vault title and improving on his NCAA provisional mark. Haer had a vault of 4.85m taking home first-place in the pole vault.

Porter Groves also earned a top five finish for Northwest in the long jump. The junior recorded a jump of 6.42m, as Ronnie Taylor of Hastings College earned the title with a jump of 7.50m.

Also picking up a top five finish was the Northwest 4×400 meter relay team. Zach Dixon, Rashaad Scott, Eli Smith and Kellen Schroeder who raced to a fifth place finish, just six second behind Concordia University.

On the women’s side Lekiesha McKnight who nabbed a NCAA provisional last week at the Husker Holiday Invite, narrowly missed a first-place finish. McKnight had a top throw of 13.27m just .13m of the NCAA provisional mark and .48m behind Abby Griffith of Hastings College’s first-place finish.

Distance runners for the Northwest women were able to bring home five top five finishes on the afternoon.

Northwest was paced by Brittany Poole’s third-place finish in the 3,000 meter run and Madison Marshman in the 5000 meter run who also ran to a third-place finish. Poole recorded a time of 10:22.99 while Marshman covered the 5k in 18:26.78.

Brianna Evans and Samantha Fender finished back-to-back, in third and fourth-place as the top sprinters of the day for the Bearcats. Evans raced to a third-place finish narrowly missing a NCAA provisional with a tie of 7.97. The NCAA provisional mark in the in the 60 meter dash is 7.75.

Both Northwest squads will return to Nebraska next weekend as they travel to Concordia University Invitational next Friday and Saturday.

— NWMSU Sports Information —