set for third road meet

Northwest track and field began its outdoor season with the Emporia State Relays March 2325 in Emporia, Kansas, and the Spank Blasing Invitational March 24-25 in Pueblo, Colorado. The Bearcats will continue their season with the Southwest Baptist University Bearcat Invite March 31-April 1 in Bolivar, Missouri.

It didn’t take long for some of the athletes to find success in the new season, with two program records being broken and Northwest reaching Division II provisional marks six times at the Emporia State Relays. Coach Brandon Masters said any early success exceeds his expectations.

“We got to see quite a few great performances,” Masters said. “Weather wasn’t ideal — as is spring in March track and field outdoors — but the kids competed. They warmed up and were competitive during the race. I don’t normally care about numbers in the first few meets, and I just want to see them executing and doing the proper stuff, so I know the numbers will come.”

The numbers came for the women’s 4x100-meter relay and sophomore Joel Dos Santos at Emporia. The quartet of sophomore Ally Hammond, sophomore Lexie Gilbert, freshman Kennedi Cline and freshman Reese Brown finished the relay with a program-best time of 46 seconds and 45 milliseconds.

The previous record of 46.50 was set in 2019.

Dos Santos ran the men’s 100-meter dash in 10.39, passing the previous program-best mark of 10.48 set by John Miles in 2008 and tied by sophomore Enrico Cavagna May 14, 2022. Masters said Dos Santos’ record has sparked some friendly competition between him and Cavagna.

“Of course, Enrico was upset a little bit because Joel took his school record, so I’m sure (Enrico) will be driven to go and try to catch him,” Masters said with a smile.

At the Spank Blasing Invitational, sophomore Reece Smith started exactly where he left off last season in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase — in first place. Nearly 10 months after Smith claimed the national title in the steeplechase May 27, the sophomore won the event in Colorado with a time of 9:19.22.

Pueblo, Colorado, is set to host the Division II Outdoor Championships May 25-27. Masters said he wanted some of the athletes to experience the environment before the national meet.

The sophomore duo of Cavagna and Dos Santos will have a chance to set new records or make good on current ones when the Bearcats make the 232-mile trek to Bolivar, with a majority of the events set for the Saturday of the competition.

The heptathlon is a competition where contestants participate in seven di ff erent events over the course of two days. The event can feature long jump, javelin throw and 100-meter hurdles.

Sophomore Anna Gladstone took fifth place in the women’s heptathlon at Emporia with 4,335 points. She said the first meet gave her a lot of confi-

Almost two months have passed since the start of Northwest’s baseball season and the Bearcats have lost seven of their last 10 games. With just 21 contests left in the season, they will first look to turn the season around against Newman March 31-April 2.

Coach Darin Loe said the Bearcats have lacked confidence this season, which has hurt them, but he said it was different in their three-game series with Northeastern State March 25-27.

“I thought this past weekend we played with a lot of confidence, and that’s where we have to start,” Loe said March 28. “We just were kind of lacking some run support, and, like I said, we swung the bats very well yesterday so hopefully we can carry that over to the rest of the season.”

The month of March has been a wild ride for the ’Cats. They had their first home series of the year against Missouri Southern (237) March 3-5, but their second home series against Pittsburg State ( 21-7) March 10-12 and a home game against Washburn (19-11) March 14 were changed to road contests due to weather.

Then, Northwest played a home series against Emporia State (11-19) March 19-20, before hitting the road to play Northeastern (12-15) March 2527. The Bearcats returned home against Washburn March 29 before, yet again, traveling for a three-game series with Newman (12-18) March 31-April 2 in Wichita, Kansas.

Loe said playing in so many stadiums is tough because every field plays differently.

“I think it takes a little while to kind of figure out how the ball flies and how the ball travels in the stadium,” Loe said.

“We haven’t spent a whole lot of time at Newman. A lot of our guys have never played there so we’ll have to figure that out and continue playing good baseball.”

The three-game series against the Jets is the sixth MIAA series for the ’Cats this season. Thus far, Northwest has lost every conference series it has been in.

Newman has won two MIAA series, including a 2-1 series win over No. 21 Rogers State.

Last year when the Jets came to Maryville, they lost the three-game set, 2-1, against the Bearcats. The all-time series is 5-3 in favor of the ’Cats. Sophomore infielder Cole Slibowski said the Bearcats can’t dwell on the past.

“Every team is different every year — we have a different team this year and so do they,” Slibowski said. “Knowing that we beat them last year will make us extremely confident.”

Newman has scored 244 runs this season, while the Bearcats have scored 127. The Jets scored 23 runs against Southern Nazarene, while the most runs the ’Cats have scored in a single game is 12 against Minnesota State Mankato Feb. 18 and against Northeastern March 28.

“We’re at the point of our season where we have to start winning some series and moving up the standings,” Loe said. “They’re going to be a quality opponent — they’re very offensive, and they’ve been putting up a lot of runs. Fortunately, looking at that last game in Tahlequah this past weekend, we swung the bats very well, so we just want to continue putting up runs as we did in that last game.” dence, and she’s ready for the next meet.

Northwest track and field freshman distance runner Drew Atkins leads the back during practice March 18. The Bearcats will be competing at the SBU Invite at 3 p.m. March 31 and at 10:30 p.m. April 1 in Bolivar, Missouri.

“I feel like I did pretty good,” Gladstone said. “I’m just excited to see what my teammates and I do this weekend.”

With seven meets in the outdoor season, the Bearcats don’t have any competition at home — compared to four home meets in the indoor season. In order to be prepared for the long road trips, Gladstone said the team warms up a bit before traveling.

SBU Bearcat Invite March 31-April 1 Bolivar, Missouri

“Once we get there, I always make sure to walk around the track and get my legs moving,” Gladstone said. “We just make sure we’re refreshed and not sitting around too much.”