Women's Track & Field 5/12/2012 3:39:00 AM SUU Strategic Communication

T-Bird Men Second, Women Third After Day Two

FARGO, N.D. - Southern Utah University picked up two more individual titles at the Summit League Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday with the team scores putting the men in second and women in third.

Southern Utah's first title came in the men's shot put as Chris Johnson threw the second-highest mark in school history, 56 feet 1.25 inches, en route to his gold medal finish. The mark was close to three feet greater than his season best as the sophomore bettered his season-best mark on all but two of his attempts.

Wade Nielson narrowly missed out on a gold medal in the men's decathlon as the senior was overtaken by North Dakota State's Weston Leutz over the final five events, finishing second with a career-best 7126 poitns.

Kyle Kopp missed out on a medal stand finish by a matter of inches in the men's long jump, collecting five points for the T-Birds with his fourth-place finish in the event after bounding 23 feet 7.5 inches.

In the men's preliminary races on the day, Preston Myers finished first in his heat of both the men's 100-meter and 200-meter dashes with a time of 10.79 and 21.82, respectively, to advance to Saturday's finals. Cameron Levins also ran to a first-place finish in the men's 800-meter run preliminary with a time of 1:53.06.

On the women's side, Kayla Kovar picked up her second individual title of the competition and helped the T-Birds sweep the shot put with a first-place toss of 51 feet 2.75 inches.

The women will have a total of five athletes in tomorrow's finals on the track as Jasmine Mullins headlined the group with the top qualifying time in the women's 100-meter hurdles. Other women in finals include: Jamila Pullum (400m), Mullins (100m), Lindsay Terry (100m/200m), Kaylee Coates (800m) and Danielle West (800m).

At the end of the second day of competition in Fargo, the men still trail North Dakota State (85) with 53 points. The women have 44 points and trail North Dakota State (90.5) and South Dakota (62).

Fans can follow the final day of the championships for free via a live stat link online at www.suutbirds.com or go online to www.gobison.com to watch a live video feed of the finals for a small fee.