Masters Wins Heptathlon, Breaks Stadium Record on Day Two of Championships

TAMPA, Fla. – Destiny Masters highlighted the second day of competition at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships with her USF Track and Field Stadium record-breaking heptathlon victory.

The Wichita State men lead the team competition after day two with 71 points and the Shocker women are tied for first with Tulsa with 36 points.

Heptathlon

Masters set her second meet record of the meet in the first event of day two, winning the heptathlon long jump with a mark of 6.04m/19’9.75” to move from fourth place to second place on the heptathlon leaderboard.

Moving to the javelin, Tess Roman threw the best mark of the competition with a mark of 41.68m/136’9” to move up into eighth place, while Masters maintained her second-place position.

In the final event, the heptathlon leader, Tulane’s Kristen O’Handley, dropped out of the 800 meters after falling at the start, leaving the top podium spot up for grabs for Masters, Tulane’s Margot Temines and SMU’s Olivia Dobson. Masters ran the best 800 meters she’s ever run to pull out the heptathlon win as Sadie Millard won the 800 in 2:19.76 and Tess Roman finished second in 2:21.19 to place sixth in the heptathlon and score three points.

Masters’s heptathlon score of 5,557 points ranks fourth in Shocker history, 29th in the NCAA (DI) and sets a new USF Track and Field Stadium record.

Decathlon

Adria Navajon began day two with the fastest 100-meter hurdles time of the day in 14.36, just .01 seconds off the meet record, to move back up to second on the leaderboard. Hudson Bailey ran 14.75 for third and Nate Vann clocked a 15.16 for fourth. Vann sat in third after the sixth event with Bailey in fourth.

Moving to the discus, Vann threw a big personal best to record the third-best discus mark of the day to move back into second place overall. After discus, Bailey moved up to third and Navajon fell to fourth with three events remaining.

Nate Vann carried momentum into the pole vault and javelin, clearing a personal-best 4.75m/15’7” and throwing a personal-best 49.29m/161’8” to remain in second going into the final event. Luke Porter won the javelin with a throw of 54.50m/178’9”.

Cincinnati’s Dominque Hall secured the decathlon title with a strong run in the 800 meters, and Vann and Navajon each earned all-conference honors with second and third-place finishes, respectively.

The Shockers scored 22 total points in the event, as Baileey finished fourth, Porter placed seventh and Kolby Caster ended up eighth.

Running Events

The Shockers kicked off day two with the 10,000-meter races that were postponed from Friday night. Sarah Bertry finished sixth in the first race of the day, running 37:48.91 to score three points for the team.

The 10K men collected a total of 15 points, led by Adrian Diaz-Lopez’s second-place finish in his first-ever 10K. Diaz-Lopez clocked a 31:33.24 to score eight points, with Jackson Caldwell and Ben Flowers finishing fifth (31:42.60; 4 points) and sixth (31:42.81; 3 pts). The Shockers scored 14 points higher than their projected total in the event.

After an almost four-hour lightning delay, athletes returned to the track at 9 p.m. to resume events.

Both Shockers who raced in the 110-meter hurdles preliminaries qualified to Sunday’s final as Joseph Holthusen (14.16) and Jaleel Montgomery (14.35) ran the fourth and fifth-fastest qualifying times.

The men had two athletes narrowly miss finals with Iestyn Williams finishing ninth in the 800 meters and missing the final by .45 seconds, and Jaleel Montgomery placing ninth in the 100 meters with a time of 10.63 and missing the final by just .04 seconds.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Miranda Dick and Jenna Muma scored six points for the team, running top-10 times in school history. Dick clocked a personal-best 10:35.44 to finish fourth with the eighth-best time in Shocker history, Muma claimed an eighth-place finish with a personal-best 10:55.14, the 10th-best time in WSU history.

Clayton Duchatschek earned a podium finish and all-conference recognition with his second-place finish in the steeplechase, running 8:52.

Field Events

Yuben Goncalves was named all-conference for his second-place finish in the long jump, recording a mark of 7.40m/24’3.5” to score eight points in his season debut in the event.

Zarrey Sams also scored in the long jump with a leap of 5.95m/19’6.25”, finishing sixth and scoring three points for the team.

Team Standings

Men
1. Wichita State – 71

  1. Memphis – 66
  2. Cincinnati – 59
  3. Houston – 24
  4. East Carolina – 19

    Tulsa – 19

  1. Tulane – 8
  2. South Florida – 7

    Women
    1. Tulsa – 36

    Wichita State – 36

  1. Houston – 34
  2. Tulane – 32
  3. UCF – 29
  4. Cincinnati – 27
  5. SMU – 25
  6. Memphis – 21
  7. East Carolina – 19
  8. South Florida – 14