LINCOLN, Neb./TOPEKA, Kan. – The Wichita State track and field team competed on day one of the Adidas Classic in Lincoln, Nebraska, and three Shockers made their mark in the 5,000-meter record book at the Washburn Open in Topeka.
 
In Topeka, Clayton Duchatschek raced a personal-best 14:23.37 in the 5,000 meters to place third and move up to fifth on the WSU all-time list, with Trey Rios finishing behind him in fourth and Jackson Caldwell placing eighth to enter the top-10 list at eight and 10, respectively.
 
"Great effort today by my 5K men," distance coach Kirk Hunter said. "What makes these efforts even more impressive is not just how much my top three guys improved their personal records, but they did it after putting in weeks of extremely hard training and on their third week in a row of fast racing."
 
The three men collectively cut 1:15 off their previous indoor personal bests.
 
"I'm excited to see what these guys will do once they get a chance to train a little bit and be fresh for conference," Hunter said.
 
At the Adidas Classic, the multi-event women got things started for the Shockers with Maria Romero recording two personal bests in her third-place effort and finishing with 3656 points. Brianna Utecht placed fifth overall in her second collegiate pentathlon with four personal bests in five events.
 
In the long jump, Morgan Conner jumped a personal-best 7.05m/23-1.75 in his second meet as a Shocker to place fifth. On the women's side, freshman Summer Stevenson qualified for finals out of flight one and went on to place seventh with a personal-best mark of 5.58m/18-3.75.
 
Michael Bryan added another top-five finish for Wichita State with a throw of 20.25m/66-5.25 in the weight throw to place fourth.