WICHITA — The Butler men's track and field team took nine first-place finishes and won the junior college division at the 2017 Herm Wilson Invitational, which was held at Wichita State University's Heskett Center on Friday.
Butler outdistanced second place Cowley by 17 points winning 119-102, followed by Dodge City (48) and Garden City (46). The Grizzlies won nine out of the 14 events and finished runner-up in five of them.
Sophomores Boniface Kiptoo (800 and 1,000-meter) and Elijah Smith (long jump and triple jump) each won two events, while freshmen Travis Collins won the 60-meter dash (6.84 seconds) and Kyandre Lyons won the 200-meter dash (22.3 seconds).
Sophomore Akeem Sirleaf took first in the 400-meter dash (49.93), while sophomore Landon Cuskelly won the high jump (6'10-75"). The Butler men's 4x800-meter relay team (8:24.4) also took home first place.
In addition to Collins winning the 60-meter dash, freshmen Kyandre Lyons (6.94) and Keith Timmons (7.04) placed third and fifth in the event, respectively. Butler also dominated the 200-meter event with six of the top 10 finishes. Alsong with the first-place finish by Lyons, Collins (22.54) placed third, freshman Jamoul Pierre (22.69) fifth, Timmons (22.83) sixth, freshmen Jameel Austin (22.9) seventh and Mario Thomas (23.24) finished eighth.
Freshman Traion Poellnitz (51.16) finished second in the 400-meter event behind Sirleaf. Pierre (1:25.7) came in third in the 600-meters followed by Austin (1:28.0) in 7th and Thomas (1:28.1) in 8th.
The 800-meter was dominated by Butler with Boniface Kiptoo winnng and Derrick Reid (2:00.2) placing second, freshman Eliud Koech (2:01.7) third, freshman Jake Taylor (2:02.4) fourth and freshman Joel Santiago (2:02.5) coming in sixth.
In the 1,000-meters, Reid (2:44.1) placed third, sophomore Emmanuel Biwott (2:48.1) fifth, Santiago (2:50.4) sixth and freshman Hillary Kiptoo (2:54.9) placed seventh.
In one of the closest races of the meet, Biwott placed second by 0.1 seconds running the mile in 4:36.9. Sophomore Jhibri Greer (8.65 seconds) took fourth in the 60-meter hurdles and was followed by Poellnitz (8.75).
Butler ran two 4x400-meter relays, with Team A (3:30.5) placing second and Team B (3:34.2) finishing third.
"We set out a few guys which allowed other kids an opportunity to step up and fill those areas. Our guys are talented, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us," coach Ryan Turner said.
Butler freshman Tyson Penn had a pair of top-three finishes, as he took second in the triple jump (45' 9.25") and third in the high jump (6'6.75"). Rounding out the Butler athletes at the meet was freshman Nick Nece who placed sixth in the shot put with a throw of (38'5").
Next up for the Grizzlies will be the Gorilla Challenge, which will be held at Pittsburg State University. The two-day event begins on Friday with multi events.
