WICHITA – Taran Taylor repeated as the American Athletic Conference javelin champion and Michael Bryan won his second conference title of the year with his hammer victory to lead the Shocker men a to a 17-point lead on day one of the AAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The men's javelin throwers racked up 25 of Wichita State's 44 points, nabbing four of the eight scoring places in the event.
 
Bryan put the first points on the board for the Shockers with his seemingly-effortless success in the hammer. All three fair throws he took would have secured him the win, but his best throw came on the first throw of finals when he launched one 69.22m/227'1" and let out a celebratory yell.
 
"Going from indoor winning the weight throw, it makes me feel really good being the back-to-back champ," Bryan said. "It seemed pretty easy to win because I don't really feel at 100%, so that 69.22 is probably almost the best I could do today."
 
Keeping the momentum going for the Shockers, Taylor threw a season-best 73.93m/242'6 on his fifth attempt in the javelin to win his second-straight conference title in the event.
 
"It feels really good. I've been kind of having some back pain this season, so battling that trying to stay healthy for conference and the championship season, it feels really amazing to come with practically my whole family here and put on a good performance for them," Taylor said.
 
His throw moves him up to No. 11 in the nation in the event as he prepares for the NCAA West Preliminaries in two weeks.
 
"Knowing that I have the mark on paper, I think it'll make my confidence go up for prelims, and it will be a good day," Taylor said.
 
The Shockers' javelin success did not stop at Taylor, though, as Davis Dubbert earned his fourth all-conference honor of his career with his third-place finish (63.52m/208'4"; SB). Cauy Lindsay and Chandler Stiawalt tacked on nine more points in the javelin with their fourth- (58.11m/190'7") and fifth-place (54.36m/178'4"), respectively.
 
Samantha Marx highlighted the day for the women's team, scoring points in both of her events. With her personal-best throw of 53.03m/173'11" in the hammer, she moved up the form chart to score one point for the team and climbed the Wichita State all-time list to No. 6. Marx came back to throw 42.35m/138'11" in the javelin to place sixth and add three points to the team total. Kourtni Hubert also scored in the javelin with her eighth-place performance (37.62m/123'5").
 
In the multi-event competition, Adria Navajon Fabregat and Brianna Utecht are the top Shockers after day one. Navajon Fabregat sits in second place with 3,660 points after five events in the decathlon, recording the top marks in the 100 meters (10.84) and high jump (tie; 1.92m/6'3.5" and finishing second in the 400 meters (50.49). Chonnor Ludolph secured 3,516 points on day one to put himself fourth in the competition after throwing the best shot put mark of the day (13.70m/44'11.5"). Also in scoring position going into day two are Kolby Caster and Morgan Conner, who sit in fifth and sixth, respectively.
 
Utecht ran the fastest time in the 100-meter hurdles (14.04) to kick off the heptathlon and went on to close out day one with the third-best 200-meter dash time (24.92), heading into Saturday in sixth place with 3,092 points. Maria Romero is right behind her in seventh with 2,943 points, and Anna Heacock and Kenisa Meyer sit in 12^th and 13^th after four events.
 
The Shocker men sent two sprinters/hurdlers through to finals in addition to three 1500-meter runners whose prelim race did not have enough athletes to run and will, therefore, skip to the final on Sunday. Joakim Genereux ran the sixth-fastest prelim time in the 200-meter dash and Yuben Goncalves claimed the seventh qualifying spot in the 400-meter hurdles. Both athletes race in the finals in two days. Jenna Muma and Kylie Meier recorded personal-best marks in the 1500 meters and 400-meter hurdles, respectively, but will not move on to the finals.
 
The men's 10,000 meters wrapped up day one competition, with the Shockers tallying nine points in the event, courtesy of Ben Flowers' and Trey Rios' fourth and fifth place finishes.
 
Competition continues Saturday at Cessna Stadium starting at 10:30 a.m.
 

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TEAM STANDINGS
 
Men
1. Wichita State - 44
2. Tulsa - 27
3. Memphis - 25
4. Cincinnati - 11
5. South Florida - 6
6. Houston – 4
7. East Carolina, Tulane - 0
 
Women
1. Memphis
2. Cincinnati
3. Tulsa
4. East Caroline – 13
5. Houston – 8
6. SMU – 5
7. Wichita State – 5
8. Temple – 3
9. Tulane – 2
10. UCF, South Florida - 0