By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western junior and St. Joseph Central alum Jordan Garr became the Griffons' first-ever individual champion at the MIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, capturing the shot put title on Sunday in Topeka.
Garr opened the competition as the top seed in the event and took control with his first throw of 17.01 meters (55-09.34) to take the lead after the first round.
That mark held up through the prelims, and Garr still had the lead going to finals, but Cole Sample of Pittsburg State had a throw of 17.08 meters on his fifth throw to pull ahead.
With only the sixth and final throw left, Garr earned the right to go last, because of his mark in the prelims. He waited and watched Konner Swenson of Pitt State take the lead with a throw of 17.57 meters.
Garr was in now in third, and was the only one left to throw, and had only one throw left.
Garr stepped into the ring and unleashed the best throw of his career for a walk-off win in the shot put. He threw a new personal best and school record of 17.85 meters (58-06.75 feet) to win the event by nearly a foot.
The throw was a career best and Missouri Western school record. Garr also moved into eighth place in the nation with the throw and put himself in good position to make the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Garr's teammate Dallas Thompson also stepped up on Sunday and he uncorked a new PR of 16.29 (53-05.50) to finish fifth overall in the shot put. The Griffon men also got a point from their 4x400 meter relay team as they were eight with a time of 3:22.32.
As a team, the Missouri Western men finished 10th overall. Pittsburg State won the men's team title, Missouri Southern finished second, followed by Northwest Missouri State, Central Missouri and Fort Hays State.
The Missouri Western women scored their most points and had their best finish at the MIAA Indoor Championships in the four years of the program as they scored 39 points and finished ninth as a team. Central Missouri won the women's title, followed by Missouri Southern, Pitt State, Lincoln and Northwest.
The Griffon women had some great performances Sunday. Savannah Simmons ran another provisional time of 7.65 in the 60-meter dash to get on the podium and place third in the MIAA.
Simmons then placed fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.28, and two of her teammates earned points as well. Aniya Kollore (25.41) finished seventh and Lynzi Miller (25.49) placed eighth.
Hanna Williams ran in a stacked 600 yard run as five women broke the facility record and Maria Diamond of Lincoln broke the MIAA record. Williams ended up in fourth place with a time of 1:26.39.
Elsewhere on Sunday for the women, Bailey Gilbert had a provisional mark in the triple jump as he placed fourth at 11.86 meters (38-11.00) and Megan Gillen finished seventh place in the mile with a time of 5:09.94. The women's 4x400 meter relay finished also scored as they were fourth on Sunday with a time of 3:52.72.
The NCAA Indoor Championships will be up next as they'll take place in Birmingham, Alabama starting on Thursday, March 11. The athletes who qualify for the NCAA National Championships will be announced on Tuesday.
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