Wayne State track and field Head Coach Marlon Brink announced last Tuesday that the Wildcats would be competing at multiple meets instead of competing Saturday at the Sioux City Relays.

The ’Cats competed Wednesday at the South Dakota Invitational in Vermillion, South Dakota, with field, and the Wildcat throwers traveled to Kearney on Thursday for the UNK Invitational at Kearney High School. Other Wildcat athletes competed on Thursday and Friday at the Sioux City Relays, which was moved up two days, due to predicted bad weather.

“Anytime a meet gets changed to a different date your whole week of training for that week will almost always change,” said senior Brady Metz. “It can be difficult but you just have to be ready for it and expect it especially with how the weather has been this spring so far.”

The South Dakota Invitational meet attracted schools from three collegiate divisions: Division I teams South Dakota, South Dakota State and North Dakota State; Division II teams MSU Moorhead, Mary, Sioux Falls and St. Cloud State; and NAIA teams Mount Marty and Dickinson State.

Metz won the triple jump to lead the Wildcat men’s outdoor track and field team Wednesday at the South Dakota Invitational with a leap of 14.50m.

“It’s always good to see yourself at the top of the competition after a meet,” said Metz.

Freshman Preston Davis finished third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.35 seconds. Senior sprinter Braxton Adams came in seventh place in the 100-meter dash finishing in 10.83 seconds and was 10th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.80 seconds.

Sophomore Habib Jallow finished in 15.28 seconds for a seventh place finish in the 110-meter hurdles. Bryce Holcomb came in eighth in the 800-meter run, finishing in 2:00.25 with teammate Nathan Pearson right behind him for a 10th place finish with a time of 2:00.51. Jack Doughty took ninth in the 5,000-meter run finishing in 16:30.22.

Senior Mary Alderson took a fifth place finish in the 200-meter dash for the women’s track athletes at the South Dakota Invitational with a time of 25.65 seconds. The quartet of Alderson, Sophie Noecker, Alyssa Kimpson and Joan Jelimo placed sixth in the 4 x 400 meter relay finishing in 4:03.09. Jelimo went on to finish 13th in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:23.55.

The Wayne State throwers competed Thursday at the UNK Invite in Kearney. Senior throwers Michaela Dendinger and Kacie O’Connor hit NCAA qualifying marks in the discus to lead the way for the throwers.

“Being qualified in all my events takes a little pressure off,” said Dendinger. “I’m able to focus on training and preparing for nationals the rest of the season. It will be a lot of heavy training and a lot of throws the extra reps will help work out the kinks before nationals.”

Dendinger recorded a season-best mark of 53.33m in the discus to win first place which is also the second-best throw in NCAA Division II this season. O’Connor also posted a season-best throw of 47.61m to place third in the event and gives her the 15th best throw in the division this season.

Dendinger won the NSIC Women’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week for the eighth straight week dating back to last outdoor season.

“It’s a huge honor, there are a lot of great athletes in the NSIC and it’s crazy that I’ve been picked that many times,” said Dendinger.

Dendinger also recorded a first place finish in the shot put with a throw of 15.19m and was second in the hammer throw at 61.53m finishing only behind WSC alum Carly Fehringer who took first with a heave of 65.81m. Sophomore Tia Jones came in fifth place in the shot put throwing 13.49m while freshman Jadin Wagner was eighth with a throw of 12.73m. Freshman Kenzie Sullivan took eighth in the discus with 41.66m.

Redshirt freshman Cade Kalkowski led the men’s throwers at the UNK Invite placing fifth in the hammer throw with a mark of 54.44m. Teammates Dylan Kaup, Matt Nemec and Richard Sweeney also placed in the top 10 in the hammer throw with Kaup finishing sixth with 53.42m, Nemec coming in seventh at 53.31m and Sweeney ninth with a throw of 52.36m. Jayle Hinkle recorded a seventh place finish in the shot put with a throw of 14.30m.

Wayne State’s next scheduled meet is Friday and Saturday, at the Doane University Invite in Crete.