Results

The Malone University men's and women's track and field teams began their outdoor season this Friday and Saturday at Muskingum University's Amy Adams Memorial. 
 
A total of five Great Midwest Athletic Conference records were broken by Pioneer student-athletes over the course of the weekend while senior thrower Duke Taylor provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championships in two different events.
 
In the team scoring, the Malone women placed second among eight squads while the Pioneer men were fifth of eight teams.
 
After a historic indoor track season, Taylor picked up right where he left off.  In his first outdoor competition of the year, the senior provisionally qualified for Nationals in both the discus and the hammer throw.  In the process, he also surpassed the Great Midwest Athletic Conference records by a wide margin in both events.
 
Taylor won the discus competition on Saturday with a toss of 54.20 meters (177' 10").  The performance was over 30 feet better than the second-place finisher.  It also established a new meet record and surpassed the previous G-MAC record by over 10 meters (43.79).
 
On Friday, Taylor took second in the hammer throw with a heave of 57.07 meters (187' 3"). The strong showing was over 15 meters better than the previous G-MAC record of 40.94 meters.
 
Ashton Dulin also set a new G-MAC record in his first outdoor competition of the year.  His first-place time of 53.83 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles surpassed the previous conference mark of 54.95 seconds.  Dulin also won the 110-meter hurdles on Saturday in 15.08 seconds. 
 
After claiming the G-MAC Indoor High Jump Championship last month, freshman Olga Branney broke the conference's outdoor high jump record on Saturday with a first-place mark of 1.62 meters (5' 3.75").  The performance also puts Branney in a tie for seventh on the Pioneers' all-time performance list in the event. 

Freshman discus thrower Michelia Tanner also set a new G-MAC record in her first collegiate outdoor meet. Tanner claimed the discus event with a 41.54 meter toss, breaking the previous G-MAC record of 40.60 meters.
 
Additional Men's Highlights
Ja'Vonne Brashears just missed the conference record in the triple jump.  His winning leap of 13.69 meters (44' 11") was the second-best mark in G-MAC history, just shy of the conference record of 13.78 meters. The impressive showing also placed Brashears in the No. 6 spot on Malone's all-time performance list in the event. 
 
Additional Women's Highlights
The Malone women's 4 x 400-meter relay team of Katie Grimes, Emily Luli, Rebekah Carr and Erika Rector placed first in a new meet record of 4:03.49
 
Rector also took first in the 1500 meters with a time of 4:47.33. 

Up Next: 
Malone will send athletes to High Point University's VertKlasse Meeting next weekend.