PUEBLO, Colo. -- The nationally-ranked Missouri Southern track and field program wrapped up the second day of the Division II Outdoor Championships with Peyton Barton becoming a national champion in the discus, Taris Jackson becoming a two-time All-American in the triple jump and Kiara Smith qualifying for the 100m hurdles finals following their performances at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl on Friday, May 26.
The men finished the day in second place with 25 points collected from four events. Barton in the discus and Taris Jackson in the triple jump earned All-American honors to push the program total up to five. In the discus, Barton, a graduate of McDonald County High School, on his fifth attempt recorded a mark of 58.16m to win the event with the fifth best mark in program history. Cedric Pearson also competed in the discus, finishing 15th with a mark of 47.13m from his third attempt. In the triple jump, Jackson finished eighth with a mark of 15.10m on his final attempt to earn back-to-back outdoor All-American honors in the event. In the 100m hurdles, Malachi Pipkin and Maksym Andurukhiv finished 20th and 21st with times of 14.39 seconds and 14.41.
For the women, Kiara Smith advanced to the 100m hurdles finals with a time of 13.37 seconds, the third best time in program history.
The team wrapped up the Division II Outdoor Championships with five more All-American performances at the CSU ThunderBowl on Saturday, May 27th, as the men finished with a program-best finish of fifth and the women finished in 14th.
The men finished with 34 points from seven events with an All-American performance in six events across three days. For the day, the Lions competed in two events, the javelin throw and the shot put with Rajheim Carby and Cedric Pearson earning All-American honors.
In the javelin throw, Carby broke the program record with a mark of 74.61m to finish third for his fourth All-American honor of his career and his three best throws of the day (74.61m, 71.81m and 71.29m) are the first, second and third best marks in program history. Also competing in the javelin throw were Brendan Rozier with a 12th place finish from a mark of 63.51m and Nathan Kovis with a mark of 58.14m to finish 19th. In the shot put, Pearson finished sixth with a mark of 17.98m from his final attempt to earn All-American honors for the first time in his career.
The women finished with 21 points from six events with four All-American performances across three days. For the day, the Lions competed in four events, the 100m hurdles, shot put, javelin throw and pole vault, with Samariae Bonds, Kiara Smith, Elizabeth Pomatto and Holly Robinson earning All-American honors.
In the 100m hurdles, Smith broke a program record with a time of 13.13 seconds to finish second in the event and earn back-to-back All-American outdoor honors in the hurdles. In the shot put, Bonds finished third with a mark of 15.60m from her second attempt to become an outdoor All-American for the first time in her Lion career. In the javelin throw, Pomatto finished third with a mark of 47.87m from her final attempt to earn All-American honors for the third year in a row. In the pole vault, Robinson earned All-American honors for the first time in her career with an eighth place finish from a personal best mark of 4.00m.