At the annual Tom Botts home invitational, sophomore Maya Cody and freshman Ja’Mari Ward led the women’s team to a first place finish and the men’s team to fourth place.
The invitational event, now in it’s 20th year, is named after former MU coach and Hall of Famer Tom Botts.
The story for the first day of the invite was true freshman long jumper Ward, who jumped a length of 25-10 ¼, or 7.88 meters, good for fourth in the nation in the event. Ward missed all of indoor season because of injury and is looking to have a successful outdoor season. The team also had redshirt senior Mollie Gribbin (triple jump), redshirt senior Ollie Lockley (5K) and redshirt freshman Samantha Farmer (3K steeplechase) place first in their events.
On Saturday, sophomore Cody led the women’s team to victory with two gold medals and one silver, earning her MVP of the meet. Her time of 11.56 in the 100-meter dash ranks fifth in program history, and her time of 23.71 in the 200 ranks third. Cody was also part of the 45.61 4×100-meter team, which ranks eighth in the nation.
Ten more athletes or teams earned first place in their races, including sophomore Kahmari Montgomery and senior LaQuisha Jackson in the 400. They ran 46.86 and 53.5, respectively. Joining them was redshirt junior Jerrad Mason in the 400 hurdles, the men’s 4×100 team and both the men’s and women’s 4×400 relay teams.
In the field events, freshman Emily Stauffer won the shot put, redshirt sophomore Gabi Jacobs won the discus and seniors Reinhard Van Zyl and Jennifer Berilla swept the javelin throw.
The team also honored their 23 graduating seniors during the meet Friday.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_