SAN MARCOS, Texas – The University of South Alabama women's track and field team earned 51 points during the first day of the Sun Belt Tournament Outdoor Championships to take a 20-point lead into day two. The men's team earned 18 points to rank third, only three points behind first-place ULM.
 
Emilie Berge leads the heptathlon event after collecting 3,391 points with personal-best or season-best performances in all four of today's events. Hanna-Mai Vaikla (javelin) and Michaela Preachuk (hammer) also won their respective events.

MEET INFORMATION
Event: 2018 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships
Dates: May 11-13
Host: Texas State 
Site: Bobcat Track & Field Stadium
Results
ESPN Coverage Day 2 | Day 3

NOTES
Men's Running Events
-Rafael Scott advanced to Sunday's 200m final with a season-best 21.08-second time in the preliminaries. Keith Davis finished in 21.36 seconds, Alex Elam covered the distance in a personal-best 21.49 seconds and DJ Taylor completed the race in 22.82 seconds.
-Warno Potgieter finished the 1,500m preliminaries in 3:59.07 to advance to the final. Ben Rolader (3:59.69) and Migael Strydom (4:01.87) also advanced after finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. Luke Fielding completed the race in 4:03.78.
-Dylan Pausic crossed the 10,000m finish line in 34:05.25 on his first career attempt. Phillip Friedlander competed in the race for the first time this season and finished in 35:21.84.
-Jacob Johnson ran the 400m hurdles preliminaries in 54.36 seconds; Javen Jackson followed with a personal-best 54.39-second finish.
 
Women's Running Events
-Cierra Hedrick completed the 200m dash preliminaries in a personal-best 24.56 seconds (4.8); Elysa Griffin covered the distance in 25.04 seconds (2.9). 
-Carolien Millenaar is seventh in the all-time USA record books after finishing the 1,500m preliminaries in 4:34.47. The freshman took seventh place in the event and surpassed her previous career-best time by more than eight seconds. Laura Labuschiagne crossed the finish line in 4:34.70 to earn tenth place. Both advanced to Sunday's final.
-Nicole Van Der Merwe ran the 10,000m in 40:31.91 on her first career attempt, while Ashley Heitling ended her Jaguar career with a 41:52.15 time.
-Olivia Swan recorded a personal-best 1:00.86 in the 400m hurdles preliminaries to finish second and qualify for Sunday's final. The time is the third-fastest in Jaguar history and the second-best in the conference this season. Darnesha Harris completed the race in 1:04.70.  
 
Men's Field Events
-Andrew Allen (59.41m, 194-10.75), Thomas Boyd (57.64m, 189-01.25) and Ethan Boyd (57.57m, 188-10.50) earned points for the Jaguars by finishing fourth through sixth, respectively, in the men's hammer throw. Jobi Finau had a 50.45m (165-06.00) throw in the event.
-David Reinhardt threw a season-best 59.43m (194-11.75) in the javelin event to claim fifth place and pick up four points. Allen added two points with a 57.81m (189-07.75) mark and Cameron Stokes had a 50.46m (165-06.50) throw.
 
Women's Field Events
-Michaela Preachuk earned her fourth hammer victory of the season and picked up 10 points for the Jaguars with a 60.83m (199-06.75) throw on her first attempt. Meagan Hall added four points with a fifth-place, personal-best 54.62m (179-02.25) mark. Autavia Fluker's sixth-place, 53.48m (175-05.50) effort garnered three points for the USA women's team. Jessie Droogsma had a career-best 51.50m (168-11.50) event to claim an eighth-place finish and another point. Esherika Hawkins had a 46.70m (153-02.50) mark on her second attempt.
-Berge finished in the top four of each heptathlon event today. She won the high jump with a 1.75m (5-08.75) mark, which is in the top five of the Jaguar records and the Sun Belt performance list. She was second in the 100m hurdles with a 14.00 (1.8) finish that ties for sixth in the USA records and sixth in the conference season standings. The sophomore also recorded season-best performances in the shot put (11.93m, 39-01.75) and 200m dash (25.50 seconds, 2.2).
-Vaikla claimed her fourth javelin victory in five events this season and picked up 10 points with a 46.61m (152-11.00) throw, which tops the conference performance list and ranks among the top 35 in the NCAA Division I East Region. She also had a personal-best high jump performance of 1.54m (5-00.50) in the heptathlon and finished the 100m hurdles in 16.09 seconds (1.3). The freshman ran the 200m dash in 26.74 seconds (1.0) and had an 11.59m (38-00.25) shot put mark in her first career attempt at the two events. 
-Four Jaguars earned points in the pole vault event. Megan James cleared a 3.67m (12-00.50) height to finish fifth and collect four points. Caitlyn Dressler and Christina Wiggins tied for sixth in the event and earned two and a half points each with matching 3.52m (11-06.50) marks; this was a career-high for Wiggins. Jordan Friz was eighth and earned one point with a 3.52m (11-06.50) finish based on attempts. Savannah Howie recorded a personal-best 3.37m (11-00.75) effort.
-Jessica Matthews threw a career-long 44.49m (145-11.50) to take third place in the javelin event and collect 6 points. Liz Bolden's fifth-place, season-best 41.83m (137-02.75) throw added four points, while Halee Thomas earned three points with a 40.23m (131-11.75) mark. Kriszti Szabo had a 32.26m (105-10.00) throw.
 
UP NEXT
The Jaguars begin the second day of the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with the women's heptathlon long jump.

QUOTES FROM COACH BRUESKE
Thoughts from the first day of competition… "We had a pretty good start to the meet. We had some folks step up and that was good to see. We still have a lot of scoring opportunities ahead that we need to capitalize on. We just have to keep the momentum up."
 
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