Day One Results

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Kentucky University women's distance medley relay team took first place, and seniors Ole Hesselbjerg and Ann Eason won the men's and women's 5,000 meters, respectively, on day one of the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday at Lantz Fieldhouse.
 
After one day of action, the EKU women's team sits in second place with 40 points, while the EKU men are in third place with 34 points.
 
The women's DMR team – composed of juniors Julie Mathisen, sophomores Charlotte Imer and Megan Kiely and freshman Carina Schrempf – won with a time of 11:53.75, edging second-place Murray State (11:59.30) by nearly six seconds.
 
The men's DMR team scored eight points with a second-place finish, clocking a time of 10:20.75 and losing only to Eastern Illinois (10:10.34). The team was composed of junior Amos Kosgey and freshmen Jakob Abrahamsen, Jamaine Coleman and Tom Koringo.
 
Eason lived up to her billing as the OVC Female Indoor Track Athlete of the Year by running away with the women's 5,000 meters title by nearly one minute. Running all alone, she clocked a time of a season-best time of 16:11.15. Belmont's Hannah Wittman finished second with a time of 17:04.46.
 
It is Eason's eighth-career individual OVC title.
 
Two other Colonels scored points in the women's 5,000 meters, as junior Ashley Svec finished fourth with a time of 17:07.31 and sophomore Ann Tum placed sixth in 17:21.19.

Juniors Alena Galertová and Ashley Woolum also scored points for the women's team in the pentathlon. Galertova finished second in the event with 3,682 points. She won the shot put (39-6) and 800 meters (2:23.90). Woolum finished fifth with a score of 3,372 points. Her best performance was third-place in the high jump (5-3).
 
Hesselbjerg's victory in the men's 5,000 meters was not as emphatic as Eason's, but the steeplechase All-American pulled it out with a time of 14:55.53. SIUE's Keith Meyer was second in 15:06.06, followed by a trio of Colonels – sophomores Ambrose Maritim (third / 15:06.45) and Luka Ndungu (fourth / 15:07.77) and freshman Ronald Korir (fifth / 15:09.83).
 
The victory gives Hesselbjerg his sixth-career individual OVC title.
 
Sophomore Tyler Jackson scored another point for the men's team, finishing eighth in the high jump with a leap of 6-0.
 
The championships resume on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. ET with the heptathlon and will come to an end around 5:00 p.m. ET with the 4x400 meter relay.