Huskers Sweep B1G Triple Jump Titles

GENEVA, Ohio - Ieva Turke and Papay Glaywulu swept the Big Ten indoor triple jump titles on Friday on day two of the Big Ten Track & Field Indoor Championships at the SPIRE Institute. 

Turke successfully defended her Big Ten indoor triple jump title, leaping 42-9 1/2 (13.04m) to win for the second straight year. Following up on her runner-up performance in the long jump on Thursday, Turke earned her sixth career Big Ten Championships medal. Teammate Ashley McElmurry also finished on the podium, taking third place with a personal-best jump of 41-0 1/2 (12.51m) on her final attempt. 

"I am very happy to have defended the triple jump title for the second year in a row," Turke said. "I am pleased with my performance but there is still more work to do. It has been a season full of uncertainty, yet the Husker jumpers have stayed on top of their game. I am proud of my teammate Ashley, who claimed the bronze medal. She is a hard worker and definitely deserved it."

Like Turke, Glaywulu entered the competition as the favorite to win the triple jump and he did just that with a winning mark of 53-5 (16.28m). Glaywulu ranks sixth nationally in the event and will qualify to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks. 

"I had to pull out my own Matt Wackerly to win my Big Ten ring," Glaywulu said. "Nothing was given to me, I had to take it."

Combined with Lishanna Ilves' long jump win on Thursday, the Huskers claimed three of the four horizontal jumps titles at this year's conference meet. 

With one day to go, both the Nebraska women and men are in second place in the team standings. The Husker women have 42 points and trail Minnesota (50). The NU men have 28 points and trail Iowa (51).

Terrol Wilson placed fifth in the triple jump to score four team points for the Husker men. Wilson jumped 50-2 (15.29m). Micaylon Moore set a big triple jump personal best of 49-9 1/4 (15.17m) to finish sixth and score three team points. Passmore Mudundulu just missed out on the scoring column, finishing ninth with a PR 48-10 3/4 (14.90m). For the women, Zionn Pearson set a PR of 40-0 (12.19m) to also place ninth. 

Zach Podraza wrapped up the heptathlon with 5,289 points to finish seventh. He opened the day with a PR in the 60-meter hurdles (8.28) to finish fifth, and then finished fourth in the pole vault and fifth in the 1,000 meters. Kolby Heinerikson finished with a personal-best 4,915 points to take ninth overall. He finished his day with a personal record of 2:46.60 in the 1,000 meters. Jamieson Battistella led the NU women in the pentathlon with a ninth-place finish with a career-best 3,549 points. She set personal bests in the shot put and 800 meters for the Big Red.

In preliminary action on Friday, Kayla Hugg (55.16) and Tony Nou (47.78) both qualified for the final in the 400 meters. Three Husker men will race in the 60 meters final on Saturday: Matthew Brown (6.78), Chris Ramsey (6.79) and Lorenzo Paissan (6.81). Emma Bresser advanced to the women's 800 meters final, and George Kusche breezed into the mile final with a time of 4:02.11 in the preliminary race. Kusche owns the fastest mile time in the Big Ten this season, 3:57.74. 

The final day of competition begins on Saturday at 10 a.m. (CT). The action will be live streamed on BTNPlus.com. In addition to the running event finals, the men's and women's pole vault, men's and women's high jump, and men's and women's shot put will all be contested on Saturday.