Missouri
SEC Outdoor Championships
Jacobs Captures Third Consecutive Discus Title at SEC Outdoor Championships
5/11/2019 9:53:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field, Track & Field
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Mizzou Track & Field closed the final day of the SEC Outdoor Championships on Saturday with one conference title and nine scoring performances. Leading the way was redshirt senior Gabi Jacobs (Bloomington, Ill.), who won her third consecutive conference title in the discus.
TEAM SCORES
The Mizzou women finished the meet in seventh place with 53 points, its best finish at an SEC Outdoor Meet since finishing seventh in 2014 with 61 points. The Mizzou men finished 12th with 34 points.
NOTABLE FINISHES
Jacobs continued her reign as the most prolific discus thrower in program history, as she is the only female Tiger to win three discus conference titles. Unlike years past, Jacobs left no doubt in this year's competition, as she produced a mark of 58.22m (191-0) with her first throw to win the event. No other competitor came within 15 feet of her mark as the runner-up, Tennessee's Stamatia Scarvelis, recorded a mark of 53.16m (174-5). Jacobs is one of three athlete in SEC history to win three consecutive discus conference titles, as she joins Beth Mallory (Alabama, 2004-06) and Shelbi Vaughan (Texas A&M, 2013-16).
Redshirt sophomore Sophia Rivera (Brentwood, Mo.) joined Jacobs in the discus top-three, as she earned a bronze medal with a throw of 52.56m (172-5) to score six points. It was Rivera's second podium finish of the meet, after finishing runner-up in the javelin on Thursday.
Mizzou had a trio of scorers in the triple jump, two for the men and one for the women. For the men, freshman Georgi Nachev (Yambol, Bulgaria) finished fourth at 15.84m (51-11.75), while redshirt sophomore Ja'Mari Ward (Cahokia, Ill.) finished seventh at 15.49m (50-10). Both set personal records and moved up Mizzou's all-time top-10 list, as Nachev now ranks seventh and Ward bettered his No. 9 mark all-time. For the women, freshman Mirieli Santos (Mato Grosso, Brazil) finished seventh at 13.13m (43-1). Santos reset her own school record mark in the performance, surpassing her previous best mark of 13.01m (42-8.25) at the Tom Botts Invitational (April 20).
The men's 4x100m relay team added a time to Mizzou's all-time top-10 list, as the team of junior Caulin Graves (Kansas City, Mo.), freshman Khmari Thompson (Lawrenceville, Ga.), redshirt freshman Jayson Ashford (Fairview Heights, Ill.), and sophomore Nylo Clarke (Riverside, Mo.) finished seventh at 40.53. The time ranks tenth all-time in program history.
In middle-distance and distance races, freshman Martin Prodanov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) finished sixth in the 1500m run, redshirt sophomore Karina Liz (Aurora, Ill.) finished seventh in the 800m run and redshirt junior Thomas George (Gloucester, England) finished eighth in the 5000m run.
QUOTABLES
Mizzou redshirt senior Gabi Jacobs
On winning another conference title at her last SEC meet…
"It feels bittersweet. I can't believe four years went by that quickly, but I'm really glad that I came out here and was able to win a third time. I'm proud to be able to produce for my team over these past three years."
On what she needs to do to build off this performance…
"I think how I build on this is to be more consistent. Just having fun and staying in the zone and just keep doing what I have to do."
Mizzou Head Coach Brett Halter
On his thoughts on the meet…
"I thought both teams did an incredible job, the competitive efforts were amazing across the board. It's always a long weekend and you never know what's going to happen, but if you trust the process and engage like the team did and great things happen for us. I'm really proud of them"
UP NEXT
Mizzou will continue postseason competition with the NCAA West Preliminary Championships, which take place May 23-25 in Sacramento, Calif. Entries to the meet will be announced by the NCAA later this week.
For all the latest on Mizzou Track & Field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (MIZ_TrackField).
MIZZOU RESULTS - TRACK EVENTS
800m Run, Men – 9. Martin Prodanov, 1:56.46
800m Run, Women – 7. Karina Liz, 2:08.04 (2 points)
1500m Run, Men – 6. Martin Prodanov, 3:50.52 (3 points) // 11. Dustan Davidson, 3:53.11
5000m Run, Men – 8. Thomas George, 14:14.35 (1 point) // 38. Evan Schulte, 15:03.00 // 43. Zach Cook, 15:16.92
5000m Run, Women – 17. Tori Findley, 16:54.88 PR // 20. Melissa Menghini, 17:05.59
4x100m Relay, Men – 7. Caulin Graves, Khmari Thompson, Jayson Ashford, Nylo Clarke, 40.74 PR, #10 (2 points)
4x400m Relay, Men – 9. Caulin Graves, Jayson Ashford, Robert Kuhlmann, Nylo Clarke, 3:12.61
MIZZOU RESULTS - FIELD EVENTS
High Jump, Women – Valeria Kostiuk, NH
Triple Jump, Men – 4. Georgi Nachev, 15.84m (51-11.75) (W: 1.3) PR, #7 (5 points) // 7. Ja'Mari Ward, 15.49m (50-10) (W: 2.0) PR, #9 (2 points)
Triple Jump, Women – 7. Mirieli Santos, 13.13m (43-1) PR, SR (W: 1.3) (2 points) // 12. Arianna Fisher, 12.58m (41-8.25) PR, #3
Discus, Men – Will Fife, Foul
Discus, Women – 1. Gabi Jacobs, 58.22m (191-0) (10 points) // 3. Sophia Rivera, 52.56m (172-5) (6 points) // 10. CeCe Johnson, 48.66m (159-8)
