Spenner Sets Record, Wins Twice at Championship

Friday, May 16

Fargo, N.D.

11:00 AM

Omaha

Summit Championship Day 2

Spenner Sets Record, Wins Twice at Championship

May 17, 2014 | Track & Field

By: Omaha Athletics

FARGO, N.D. – Sami Spenner broke her own Summit League record in the heptathlon and won the long jump on the second day of competition at the Summit League Outdoor Track and Field Championship.

The Mavericks are in fourth place with 61 points after nine events. South Dakota State leads with a score of 90, just ahead of defending champion North Dakota State at 88. South Dakota is close behind at 86.

Spenner successfully defended her championship in both events. She earned 5,507 points in the heptathlon, more than 550 points ahead of runner up Rose Jackson of North Dakota State. The score also was more than 150 better than her previous Summit record. She finished in the top four in all seven events of the heptathlon including top marks in the 100 meter hurdles, high jump, 200 meters and the long jump.

On Friday, she jumped 19-06 ½ in the long jump and followed that up with a mark of 109-04 in the javelin, second best among the competitors. She closed the heptathlon with a time of 2:28.12 in the 800 meters.

Amanda Alexander finished seventh and in the process set a big personal best with a score of 4,077. She posted her second best mark of the season in the long jump with a leap of 15-06 ½ and threw 104-09 in the javelin. She finished the heptathlon with a personal best time of 2:38.84 in the 800 meters.

Spenner and Alexander combined to earn 12 points for the Mavericks.

Spenner led a 1-2 finish for the Mavericks in the long jump, posting a mark of 20-07 ¾, just an inch and a quarter from tying her own school record set at last year's championship. Kathie-Lee Laidley was second at 20-03, and Denneil Shaw took sixth with a jump of 18-04 ½. They combined to earn 21 points for UNO.

For the second straight year, Laidley tied for first in the high jump but lost the tiebreaker because of misses. Her jump of 5-10 was a season best. Spenner finished third with a personal best mark of 5-08 ¾.

In the shot put, Liz Thompson posted a personal best to finish third with a throw of 46-08 ¾, more than two feet farther that her previous best.

All but one of the running events on Friday were preliminaries. In the 100 meters, Spenner qualified for the finals with the second best time of 11.98. Nicole Liske tied for seventh and moved on to the finals with a time of 12.52, a personal best.

Spenner also qualified fourth in the 200 meter dash with a time of 25.09.

Laidley qualified second in the 100 meter hurdles with a season best time of 14.52. Celeste Robinson qualified fifth at 15.03, a personal best.

Katarina Zarudnaya qualified sixth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:12.86, and Terri Armstrong qualified seventh in the 400 meters at 58.08. Both times were season bests.

The final day of the championship begins with the discus and triple jump at 11 a.m. from the Schlanser Track at North Dakota State. The track events begin at noon.