Friday's MVC Championship Results
DES MOINES, Iowa – University of Evansville senior Joey Rucinski (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Concordia Lutheran) placed sixth Friday in the pole vault competition, while also advancing to the finals of the javelin and setting three personal-best marks overall to help pace the Purple Aces track and field teams on the first day of the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
While in the midst of competing in the decathlon's opening day, Rucinski was able to clear a height of 4.30 meters (14'1.25") in the pole vault to place sixth in the Valley. Rucinski then went immediately to the track and turned a personal-best time of 52.39 in the decathlon's 400-meter competition to raise his decathlon point total to 3,045 after five events. Both Rucinski and freshman Preston Riggs (Ft. Branch, Ind./Gibson Southern) are on pace to set personal-best scoring marks in the decathlon entering day two.
Rucinski then sprinted over the javelin competition and advanced to the event final with a personal-best throw of 48.50 meters (159'1") on his last attempt. Rucinski would finish ninth overall in the javelin, falling just 0.13 meters (5") shy of eighth place.
"In all of my years of coaching, I have never had an athlete do what Joey did today," said UE head coach Don Walters. "He had to sprint over to the pole vault, and then sprint back to the multi-events so that he wasn't disqualified from everything, because he had to fulfill all of his meet requirements. But, he was able to come over, nail the opening jump, and had the next height easily cleared, except that his bib stuck on the bar and pulled it over. He could have even finished higher in the pole vault if not for that.
"And then he goes over to the javelin after setting the PR in the 400 and makes the event final there. The guy was exhausted, but just never gave up, and I cannot say enough about the job he did today. And, overall, I was really pleased with a lot of the performances we had today against some outstanding competition."
Overall, Evansville set 11 personal-best marks on the day. Rucinski not only set PRs in both the javelin and 400-meter portion of the decathlon, but also in the decathlon's 100-meters (11.86). Riggs also set PRs in both the 100-meter (11.56) and 400-meter (54.44) portions of the decathlon.
Senior McKenna Sapp (Bloomington, Ill./University) and freshman Kaitlyn Sansone (Fairfield, Ohio/Mercy McAuley) both set PR marks in the women's javelin competition with throws of 28.53 and 25.18 meters, respectively. Meanwhile, on the track, Evansville saw PR performances in the 200-meters by juniors Giovanni Purser (22.21) and Jackson Maurer (23.52) on the men's side and by freshman Kara Yunker (28.29) on the women's side. Freshman Justin Nichols (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy Orange) also set a PR mark in the 1,500-meters with a time of 4:29.66.
The Missouri Valley Conference Track & Field Championships will continue on Saturday, with the conclusion of the decathlon competition kicking off the day at 10 a.m. Field events will begin at 3 p.m. and track events will start at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Action can be seen on ESPN3 beginning at 4:45 p.m.
