In only its second year the Big River Running Indoor Series has experienced great growth. The second qualifying meet saw athletes from a number of states – Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. This meet last year saw 13 national elite performances. Sunday’s meet saw 28 performances that were national elites.
Focusing on the Missouri Athletes, Maya Cody (Lutheran South) continued her strong indoor season, winning the 200m in a time of 25.68 as well as the 60m (7.76). She had a solid effort in the 400m, clocking in at 58.51 but was defeated by Jasmine Berry (Belleville West, IL) who moves up to 22nd in the national rankings. On the distance side, Hannah Pierson had a solid day coming in second in the Mile and third in the two mile. Her splits in the mile, the first of the two were 75, 82, 81, and 78 to total 5:16.98 – finishing behind only Iowa star Stephanie Jenks. Jenks also won the 3200 with Allison Zobrist (IL) finishing 2nd and Pierson 3rd. Pierson ran an evenly split (5:53, 5:50) race to finish in 11:43 which sits second in the state rankings. The top field event performance from a Missouri female came from Jordan McClendon of John Burroughs who won the weight throw and placed second in the shot put. Her put of 39-3 puts her as the top in Missouri. That event was dominated by Lena Giger (IL) who threw over 48 feet for the second straight week. Giger currently sits at third in the national rankings. McClendon took the win in the weight though with a US#42 mark of 42-7.5.
Moving to the guys, out of state performers excelled in many events. One Missouri athlete to take the win was Dustan Davidson (SLUH) who set a new series record in the 800m, running 2:00.90. His former teammate, Patrick Perrier (O’Fallon, IL), set a series record in the mile with a quick time of 4:21.23. Landon Bartel won the high jump again, clearing 6-6 this meet. This fell a bit short of his series record of 6-10.75 he set back on the 11th.
Check out all of the national elite performances from the meet below.