Championship Central
ROLLA, Mo. - Two University of Illinois Springfield distance runners swept the men's and women's 10,000-meter races Thursday in record fashion on the opening night of the 2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which are being held at Allgood-Bailey Stadium on the campus of Missouri S&T in Rolla, Missouri.
Illinois Springfield true freshman Cortland Ross bided his time in the men's 10,000 meters until the final 200 meters, pulling away from the other two runners that shared the lead throughout the 25 laps to win by just over five seconds in 30:10.94 to set a new league and stadium record. He outkicked a pair of University of Southern Indiana runners in junior Wyat Harmon (30:15.67) and sophomore Noah Hufnagel (30:25.98) for the gold and NCAA Division II Provisional mark.
UIS sophomore Taryn Christy also set a new Conference and Allgood-Bailey Stadium standard in the women's 10,000 meters with a winning and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 34:48.34. In a wire-to-win victory, she blew away the competition with a near-2:00 advantage over runner-up Doriane Langlois (36:21.88) of USI, who finished almost exactly 1:00 ahead of teammate Adele Schnautz (37.21.99).
Prior to the 10K finals, preliminaries in the 1,500 meters were held with Southwest Baptist University sophomore Elysia Burgos (4:37.37) and Screaming Eagles freshman Titus Winders (3:58.05) crossing the line first in their respective races to lead a group of 12 to the finals.
Unlike year's past, the men's and women's hammer throw also took place Thursday afternoon, as University of Indianapolis freshman Zoe Pentecost won gold with a 54.76-meter (179-08) heave, while Missouri S&T sophomore Nathan Swadley tossed at a distance of 58.49 meters (191-11) to win the men's event and earn a D-II provisional mark.
In addition, the first half of the heptathlon and decathlon events took place. Southwest Baptist freshman Bladen Hancock leads the men's decathlon with 3,423 points, while Maryville University senior Casey Berberich (2,891) holds the lead in the heptathlon.
Nine women's teams earned points on the first day of action, with Southern Indiana leading the way with 20 points, followed by Indianapolis (19), Illinois Springfield (10), William Jewell College (8) and Lewis University (8), Southwest Baptist (5), Lindenwood University (5), Missouri S&T (2), and Truman State University (1). On the men's side, Missouri S&T holds the early lead with 21 points, ahead of Southern Indiana (19), Illinois Springfield (12) and Truman (12), Indianapolis (7), Maryville (5), and Lindenwood (1).
The combined events will kick off the day again on Friday morning at 9 a.m. CT and run throughout the afternoon to their conclusions. In the field events, the men and women will compete in the finals of the shot put, long jump, and pole vault.
Running events commence at 3:30 p.m. with the 110-meter hurdles. The 100-, 200-, 400-, and 800-meter races are scheduled throughout the day, while the men's and women's 3,000-meter steeplechase will begin at 7:10 p.m. in the nightcap.
Live coverage can be seen by logging on to the GLVCSN's official website,
GLVCSN.com, or on the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, as well as on the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV OTT platforms. Live results can be found on the official Championship homepage at
GLVCsports.com/2021outdoor.
A single-day admission is $10.00 for all spectators, while children 6 and under are admitted free. No admission will be charged for Thursday's events. In order to gain access to the stadium, spectators must be pre-registered through the head coach.
Updates will also be included on the GLVC's official Twitter accounts (@GLVCsports and @GLVCSN) with the hashtags, #GLVCtrack and #GLVCchamps.