The Valparaiso University men’s and women’s track and field teams the Horizon League Outdoor Championships hosted by Youngstown State on Friday. The Crusader men leave the opening day with seven points, holding seventh place overall. Sophomore Drew McKissick Jr. (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) highlighted the opening day of the league championships for Valpo.

How It Happened

• Tallying four points for the Brown and Gold, McKissick Jr. tossed the javelin 176’9” for a fifth-place nod. This distance surpasses his season-best mark of 172’3”, set on April 15.
• Freshman Jake Rasawehr (Celina, Ohio/Celina) scored three points for the Crusaders on Friday after launching the discus 150’3” to capture sixth.
• Sophomore Connor Hickey (Peru, Ill./LaSalle-Peru) sits in seventh place in the decathlon after the first day of the championships. Finishing five of the 10 events, Hickey has a total of 2,683 points. He has a time of 12.28 in the 100m dash and a 53.98 in the 400m race. In the field events, he has a distance of 19’4 1/4" in the long jump and 28’1 3/4" in the shot put and a height of 5’3 3/4” in the high jump.
• In the distance race, senior Max Morello (Plano, Ill./Plano) led the squad in the 10,000m event, finishing in 32:54.54, trimming nine seconds off the team’s top time from a year ago. Junior Sidney Noble (Powhatan, Va./Powhatan) had a time of 33:51.43, placing two spots below his teammate.
• Junior Kim Heiny (Burnettsville, Ind./Twin Lakes) crossed the line at 39:35.48 in the 10,000m race, coming in 15th. This is 27 seconds quicker than the team’s best mark in the race last season.

Next Up

Action in the Horizon League Outdoor Championships resumes on Saturday at Youngstown State University. Day Two is slated to begin at 8 a.m. CT beginning with the remaining men’s decathlon events. For those unable to attend, the meet with be broadcast on ESPN3 on Saturday starting at 2:55 p.m. CT. A link to the broadcast can be found on ValpoAthletics.com.