The Omaha Track and Field team spent two windy days in Vermillion, SD for the USD Early Bird. Action started on Friday with a handful of runners in the 1500m. Lauren Metzger continued her strong season by running the 9th fastest time in school history. Her personal best time of 4:39.23 was good for 3rd place.  Just behind her in 5th was Kamryn Ensley with a season best time of 4:45.18. Also running a season best time was Lily Jackson with a 4:54.92. Emma Hain crossed the finish line with a lifetime best 5:09.01. 

In the lone field event of the day for the Mavericks, Dannika Rees threw the discus a college best of two of her throws to finish with a 126'3". 

The Mavs were back at it on Saturday morning with the 4x100m relay team of Nina Cuevas, Macy Persinger, Avyn Urbanski and Tania Gleason finishing 2nd with a season best time of 48.21. 

Shortly after that, a pair of hurdlers made some noise of their own. Jade Jackson qualified for the finals of the 100m hurdles with a personal best 14.77. Grace Mustard finished with a college best time of 15.00 dropping another .09 from her time last week prior. 

In the 100m, Tania Gleason led the way with the 6th fastest time in school history. Her time of 11.94 was good for 7th place. Freshman Avyn Urbanski raced down the track to win her heat with a college best time of 12.22. 

On the jumps side, Kaitlin Hellbusch continued her consistency in the high jump with a 5'3" clearance and 5th place. After her hurdle race, multi-eventer Jade Jackson jumped a PR height of 5'1".  In the last event of the day, freshman Ali Wiseman leaped a college best distance of 35'6.75" in the triple jump. 

"These were some very challenging conditions and our team still came out and put in the work. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but we still need to make the best of any situation and focus on what you can control. There are people competing hard and we need that to continue throughout the season," head coach Chris Richardson said.

The Mavericks will next split with athletes seeing some of the best competition in the country at the Bryan Clay Invite in Azusa, CA. The rest of the team will compete at the Jim Duncan Invitational at the Drake University next week.