Women's Track and Field | 12/3/2016 6:31:00 PM

MANKATO, Minn. --- The Minnesota State women's track and field team opened up its season as it hosted the Chuck Petersen Open on Friday and Saturday

The day started off with Minnesota State taking the top six spots in the 60-meter dash as sophomore Gabi Gaines finished in first place (7.64), junior Karlona Gregory finished second (7.65), and junior Brieanna Puckett finished third (7.757).  Rounding out the top six spots in the 60-meter dash were sophomore Afure Adah (7.759), sophomore Autumn Santos (7.82), and junior Ariel Thomas (7.84). The Purple and Gold took the second, third, fourth, and sixth spots in the 200-meter dash with performances from junior Gregory (25.42), junior Puckett (25.50), sophomore Gaines (25.61), and sophomore Santos (26.22). 

Junior Kellie Wong earned second place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.31.

MSU took eight of the top ten spots in the 400 meter dash. Sophomore Kimmy Wreh took first place with a time of 59.26 while senior Taylor Glover earned second place with a time of 59.50.  JuniorAmelia Kjos (59.73), junior Stacy Smidt (59.91), senior Taylor Naatz (1:00.15), junior Sophie, sophomoreMary Fixsen (1:02.69), and freshman Jenna Gatz (1:02.87) finished third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and tenth respectively dominating the leaderboard.  Minnesota State senior Haley Kruger earned first place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:17.21.  Senior Maddi Sjelin (2:20.98), sophomore Bobbi Patrick (2:23.42), and sophomore Jessica Boespflug (2:24.17) finished second, third and fourth respectively in the 800-meter. 

In the 1-mile run Maverick sophomore Megan Serratore ran to a strong victory with a time of 5:30.19, edging the competition by twelve seconds.  The Mavericks' success continued in the 3000-meter as Junior Erin Baker finished first with a time of 10:14.78.  Also in the 3000-meter sophomore Lily Paul (10:55.49) and Freshman Carisa Weyenberg (10:56.76) took second and fourth respectively.   Minnesota State ran strong in the 4X400m relay as the team of Wreh, Smidt, Kjos, and Naatz took first place with a time of 4:00.02 and the team of Glover, Adah, Puckett, and Gaines finished second with a time of 4:00.76.  The team of Kruger, Patrick, Boespflug, and Sjelin finished fourth to give MSU three of the top four finishes.

Leading the way in the triple jump for Minnesota State was freshman Rachel Schumacher who earned third place with a jump of 11.11m.  Junior Thomas finished fifth with a jump of 11.07m.  In the high jump senior Brianna Ziolkowski earned the top spot with a jump of 1.70m and Schumacher took second place with a jump of 1.65. 


Minnesota State will not return to action until January 7, 2017 for the MSU Alumni Open in Mankato at Myers Field House.