Lively’s first-place finish highlights 11 podium finishes to wrap up HL Championships

Sunday, May 5

Rochester, MI

Wright State University

Horizon League Outdoor Championship - Day 3

Photo by: Jordan Wommack

Lively’s first-place finish highlights 11 podium finishes to wrap up HL Championships

5/5/2024 6:45:00 PM | Track & Field

ROCHESTER, MI — Cierra Lively's first-place finish in the women's high jump highlighted several podium finishes by the Wright State track and field programs on Sunday in the final day of action at the 2024 Horizon League Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

The Raider women finished seventh overall for the Championship, with the Wright State men finishing eighth for the weekend.

Lively claimed the top spot with a top jump of 1.69m on Sunday, .03m above the rest of the field on the way to the title. After clearing 1.69m, Lively just missed at a mark of 1.76m, which would have been a new personal-best mark. In addition to Lively, Sam Ott cleared 1.57m to finish in a tie for seventh to also make the podium. Ott, who also plays volleyball at Wright State, began competing in the high jump event for the first time ever this spring.

Hannah Falknor had a busy afternoon on the track and at the podium, first finishing third in the women's 100m race with a time of 11.85, before turning around half an hour later and clocking a 24.89 second mark in the women's 200m race to finish fourth in that event. The men's 400m hurdles saw Mohamed Bilal reach the podium with a fifth-place finish and 56.73 mark, while Jude Elkins was sixth in the men's 110m hurdles with a time of 15.04 seconds.

Wright State also reached the podium in both the men's and women's 5,000m run, with a pair of Raiders finding the podium on the women's side. Kaitlyn Miller finished sixth with her time of 17:19.69, followed closely behind by Alicia Neumeier's 17:26.36 in eighth, while in the men's race Alex McCarty finished eighth with his 14:38.85 mark.

Two more Raider groups grabbed podium finishes as well, with the men's 4 x 400m team of Bilal, Hunter Thompson, Patrick Statzer and Gavin Hutchinson finishing fifth with a time of 3:22.84, while the women's 4 x 100m group of Ava Bosticco, Lylla Kovacs, Brooke Thompson and Falknor turned in a 48.95 second mark to finish sixth.