JOPLIN, Mo. — The Southern Nazarene Men's and Women's Track teams headed to Missouri to compete in Missouri Southern State's Lion Open event.

On the Men's side, Southern Nazarene saw three top-ten finishes in the 400-meter dash as Scott Lynch placed fifth (53.31), Cedric Petties followed behind in seventh (53.60), and Malachi Allen finished right at tenth (53.81). In the 600 yard run, their were two top-ten finishes as Christian Escritt placed third (1:19.32) and Dennis Green followed in fourth (1:20.12). 

Matthew Kletke, Josh Lewis, and Darius Petties all represented in the 800-meter event placing 11th, 12th, and 13th with times of 2:11.08, 2:11.15, and 2:11.46 respectively. Jacob Humphrey and Zach Woods finished 8th and 9th in the mile run with times of 5:05.38 and 5:05.71, other top-ten finishes for the Storm.

In the Men's 4x400 meter relay event, runners Darrius Blackshire, Cedric Petties, Scott Lynch, and Ryan Audette all contributed to a first place finish with a time of 3:31.86. Mattew Kletke, Andrew Shepard, Dennis Green, and Darius Petties were SNU's other relay runners, placing 4th also in 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:40.65.

Zach McAlpin placed third in the 3000-meter run as he finished with time of 9:19.63.

For the Women, Lauren Stitt, Lauren Davidson, and Rebecca Warden all competed in the 600-yard dash placing fourth (1:42.64), fifth (1:45.40), and sixth (1:48.51) respectively. Madalyn Harper had a spectacular first place mile run with a time of 2:22.85 while Sabbatha Taylor raced in the 800-meter run finishing in the top-ten at fourth with a time of 2:36.52. In the mile event, the women saw four top-ten times as Elora Jones (5:55.71), Hollie Ortiz (6:18.58), Afeni Rubio (6:19.78), and Lauryn Downs (6:27.63) finished fourth, eighth, ninth, and tenth respectively.


The Storm head back to Pittsburg, Kansas where they will compete in PSU's Gorilla Classic February 11th and 12th.