WICHITA – Wichita State track and field's multi-event athletes will open their indoor season Thursday and Friday at the Shocker Multi in the Heskett Center.
 
The men's heptathlon begins Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and continues Friday at 12:30 p.m., while the women's pentathlon takes place Friday at noon.
 
"We look forward to this multi-event competition every year because we're finally able to kick off our season after a long fall of preparation," head coach Steve Rainbolt said. "We count this meet as an official competition and invite outside competitors in case somebody puts up a big score."
 
Adria Navajon, Nate Vann and Wen Clough are minorly dinged up, so they will not be competing, but Hudson Bailey and Kolby Caster will return to the heptathlon after finishing seventh and eighth, respectively, at the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Indoor Championships in February.
 
"I'm real excited about Hudson Bailey," Rainbolt said. "That guy is going to be an extremely good multi-event athlete for our track team and has a tremendous amount of potential, so hopefully he'll get off to a strong start with his season."
 
Bailey recorded his personal best of 4,745 points last year in the Heskett Center at the Herm Wilson Invitational with the 60-meter hurdles being his top-scoring event (8.52; 855 pts). Bailey went on to score for the Shockers in the open 60m hurdles at the AAC Indoor Championships, placing sixth with the same time after running 8.42 in the prelims.
 
Central Washington's Braydon Maier enters the competition with the top heptathlon mark. Maier placed seventh at 2019 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships with a score of 5,288 points and is a great heptathlon athlete in the pole vault. His personal-best clearance of 4.87m/15'11.5" would score 871 points in a multi-event competition.
 
"[Having athletes from other schools] lends an atmosphere of legitimacy," Rainbolt said. "It is always great to see some other opponents, and it enhances the competitive atmosphere of the multi-event competition. Multi-eventers get along well and make friends with one another because [they are] around them for two days going through the ups and downs of the competition, which makes multi-event competition special."
 
Wyatt Leutzinger is set to compete in uniform for the first time after redshirting his freshman year, and freshman Luke Porter will make his Shocker debut as well. JD Prinsloo is entered in the competition for the purpose of scoring intrasquad points for the Yellow team, as the Shocker Multi points are counted towards the Black vs. Yellow Intrasquad competition that will conclude Friday, Dec. 9.
 
In the women's pentathlon, Destiny Masters holds the top mark coming in and looks to repeat at the Shocker Multi champion. Last year at this meet, Masters recorded the best marks in four of the five events and scored 1,003 points in the high jump with a personal-best clearance of 1.82m/5'11.5". That height ranked her 18^th in the nation at the conclusion of the indoor season.
 
"Last year, Destiny Masters had a really nice pentathlon, so she's been looking forward to this, especially because she had some injury problems last spring," Rainbolt said. "She's feeling good now physically, and I'm real hopeful that she's ready for a nice meet. If she can put together a nice meet, the possibility exists that she scores high enough to challenge for a spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships."
 
Anna Heacock and Jalen Milligan enter with the next best marks, as Milligan returns to competition after a season-ending injury last year, followed by CWU's McCall Dechenne and WSU's Kenisa Meyer.
 
Freshman Nebraska transfer Abby Klipstein will make her Shocker debut, while freshmen Lillian Morrison, Tess Roman and Sadie Millard will compete unattached.
 
"I'm looking forward to seeing how they're doing because some of them may be in uniform during the season, and part of that decision-making process will be how they do in this pentathlon," Rainbolt said.
 
A live results link will be available tomorrow on the home meet info page.

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 THURSDAY
1:00 p.m. Men's Heptathlon – Day One
60m
Long Jump
Shot Put
High Jump
 
FRIDAY
12 p.m. Women's Pentathlon
60m Hurdles
High Jump
Shot Put
Long Jump
800m
 
12:30 p.m. Men's Heptathlon – Day Two
60m Hurdles
Pole Vault
1,000m