AMES, Iowa - The Mizzou track and field program saw three-time All-American Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) place second in the heptathlon at the Bill Bergan Combined Events on Friday afternoon (Jan. 28) at Iowa State. The Tiger senior posted 5,578 points in the two-day event, a mark that will likely send him to the NCAA Championships in only the fourth week of the season. Rise scored 2,496 total points in the three events on Friday and set personal-bests in both the 60m hurdles and pole vault.

To put Rise's score into perspective, his 5,578 points would have been one spot away from qualifying for the NCAA National Championships from a season ago, and it is only the fourth week of the season.

Tiger sophomore Kelcy Vanarsdall (Buckner, Mo.) also competed at the meet and turned in a third-place finish in the women's pentathlon as she tallied a point total of 3,414 and set plenty of personal-bests on the day. The pentathlon was only the second of her career and her score improved her personal-best in the event by nearly 450 points.

"That is a really good score for Lars and it likely gets him to the NCAA Championships," associate head track and field coach Dan Lefever said after the meet. "That is a really good score for him in just the fourth week of the season. All in all, we had a really great meet and we expect more (from both Lars and Kelcy) as we move forward."

After totaling 3,082 points on day one - which placed him fourth overall - Rise opened his day with a personal-best performance in the 60m hurdles after clocking in at 8.42, earning 879 points in the overall competition. The 879 points in the event were the most that he scored in any event during the two-day competition. He came back and set a personal-best in the next event as well after clearing 4.66m in the pole vault, a mark that earned him 807 points. He closed his day by clocking in at 2:45.77 in the 1,000m run, adding 810 points to his overall score.

Vanarsdall turned in a great performance on the day and began the competition by clocking a time of 9.70 in the 60m hurdles, a personal-best, earning her 769 points in the team competition. She came back and cleared 1.50m in the high jump for 621 points and threw the shot 11.88m for 653 points. After leaping 5.02m in the long jump for 565 points, Vanarsdall saved her best performance for last and claimed the pentathlon 800m title after turning in a time of 2:21.29, good for 806 total points.

The rest of the Tiger track and field team will be in action tomorrow as the Bill Bergan Invitational will continue. The meet is slated for a 10:30 start. For all the latest on Mizzou track and field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com.