Kyei-Baffour, Bickett and Renschler Show-out at the Gary Wilson Invitational in the Twin Cities

NDSU track and field travel to the Twin Cities for the Gary Wilson Invitational. In a meet filled with talent across the upper Midwest, the athletes displayed their skills.

With close to 100 Bison competing, they rounded out many top fives, and with many claiming number one in their events.

To start on the track, in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, NDSU would have three top-six placers: Kate Laqua, Marvelous Onwualo and Sydney Arndt. They would place sixth, fourth and third, respectively.

Paige Renschler was shot out of a cannon in the 100-meter, claiming that top spot in a record-breaking 11.11 seconds. That is the 11th fastest time in Division One this year. Elise Wisnewski would place sixth with a new season’s best time of 11:38.

The duo would also strike the 200-meter again. Renschler claimed the first with a swift time of 23.20, with Wisnewski following right behind her with a time of 23.54.

In the 400-meter dash, NDSU would claim two of the top five spots. Both juniors would strike: Reese Rogowski and Kaela Skisstad finished fourth and third.

The 4×400-meter relay would also run in NDSU’s favor: Wisnewski, Espino, Stingle and Rogowski won by eight seconds with a season’s best time of 3:46.42.

On the men’s side, they were equally as dominant. It started by showing their muscle in the 4×100-meter relay. Tyler Mikes, Jeran McNichols, Chris Hilton and Jayden Murdock placed first.

Hurdling is the Joshua Kyei-Baffour event. He placed first and moved up to third in Bison history with the record time of 13.69. Sophomore Brooks Turner also recorded a season’s best time of 14.00 to claim third.

The men’s 4×400-meter relay team, consisting of Ramon Durman, Josh Beil, Otto Anderson and Carter Elde, would place second to round out the events on the track.

Senior Jarod White cleared 5.03 meters in the pole vault to win the event. He beat second by a foot.

Staying on the men’s side, Zach McGlynn posted his season’s best mark of 2.05 meters to claim a fifth spot, while star Carter Reckelberg placed sixth in the long jump.

Arienne Birch in back-to-back meets asserted her dominance. She has won three of her last four high jump events, finishing with a 1.76-meter high jump. The sky is the limit for the jumper. Grace Van Erp, in the triple jump, finished as the runner-up.

Lastly, Ella Gardner and Yolanda Nabwe finished second and third in the long jump. Olivia Keller from St. Thomas was the only one to top them.

When NDSU has throwers in a meet, there are bound to be fireworks.

In the women’s javelin, freshman Jenna Shutt and senior Alexandra Seagris threw meet records. Shutt tossed it 154 feet, and Seagris followed with 141 feet. Shutt has only gotten better at each event.

Adison Kapitzke and Riley Quinn finished second and third in the shot put. Both of them collected valuable points for NDSU in the meet.

Speaking of collecting points, NDSU had four out of the top ten places in the men’s javelin, but freshman Ryder Bickett threw the meet record and placed first with a mark of 197 feet and eight inches. Daniel Severud threw 190 feet for third, and Zach Lilly placed sixth with a toss of 181 feet.

In the Discuses, sophomore Aiden Krause threw runner-up with 175 feet, and senior standout Kaden Pastian placed fourth, finishing four feet behind Krause with 171 feet. With the last throwing event being shot put, freshman Paul Hoekman placed fourth with a mark of 17 meters.

With the Gary Wilson Invitational happening in the middle of the week, NDSU looks to gain some rest and take it easy on the weekend.

Both teams will split up next weekend and either head down south to Dallas, Texas, for the SMU Invitational or head west again for the Oregon State High Performance meet held in Corvallis, Oregon. These will be their second-to-last meets before the NDSU Tune-Up on May 8.