Event wins aplenty as Ball State wraps up first indoor meet of the season

Saturday, December 10

Bowling Green, OH

All Day

Ball State University

Tom Wright Open

Photo by: Ball State Athletics

Event wins aplenty as Ball State wraps up first indoor meet of the season

December 10, 2022 | Track & Field

Final Results

Cardinals pick up five event wins at Tom Wright Open

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – In its first indoor meet of the 2022-23 campaign, the Ball State track and field team recorded a plethora of event wins, heat wins and personal bests Saturday at the Tom Wright Open.

"I was extremely pleased with today's effort," head coach Adrian Wheatley said. "The bulk of the team just showed up and competed and had PRs. That was really exciting to see. Some of our returners picked up where they left off last year. It was also good to see some of our newcomers step into the Ball State uniform for the first time and come up with lifetime PRs."

Charity Griffith began the day by winning the long jump with a mark of 5.71m. Jenelle Rogers was just behind and finished second with a jump of 5.69m.

Jennah Rogers took first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.78 in the finals after also running the fastest time among the competition in the prelims at 8.75, which set a collegiate-best mark and was 0.17 faster than her best time last season. In the same race, Griffith took fourth at 8.89.

The trio of Jenna Oriani, Alana Springer and Moriah Johnson finished 1-3 in order in the 60-meter dash. Oriani won the race in a personal-best time of 7.58, which was an improvement of 0.21 from her best mark in high school.

Springer, who won her heat in the prelims, took second with a time of 7.62 in her first collegiate race. Johnson placed third with a collegiate-best time of 7.72.

Springer continued the positive momentum and won the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.18. Emma Potter, who won her heat, placed third with her best time as a Cardinal at 25.87. Lindley Steele earned a fourth-place finish and was second her heat with a time of 26.18.

Kayla Jones ran an indoor-best time of 2:12.51 to win the 800-meter run. Her time marked a two-second improvement from her opener last season. Abigail Adams helped Jones achieve the mark as she served as a pace runner for the first 300 meters.

In the 1,600-meter relay, the quartet of Jennah Rogers, Oriani, Taylor Hickman and Leila Williams-Molito took second with a time of 4:07.01. In addition, Ball State fielded a second relay team of Griffith, Jenelle Rogers, Lea-Marie Diedecki and Steele, who took third with a time of 4:12.92.

"Overall, I was really pleased with the performance," Wheatley added. "I think it set the stage for what is to come the rest of the season. I challenged the team after the meet and said, 'This is December 10th. This is the beginning of our journey, so let's make sure that we're being diligent in what we're doing training-wise over the break and we come back even more hungry.'"

The Cardinals return to the track following the semester break on Jan. 14 at the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa.