Emporia ? The Kansas University men’s and women’s track and field teams opened the 2003 outdoor season with nine winners Thursday night at the Vortex ESU Spring Twilight at Emporia State University.

The women had seven winners and four runners-up, while the men had two first-place finishes and five runners-up. Three Kansas athletes have qualified for regional competition.

No team scores were kept.

First-place honors for the KU women went to junior Monique Peters in the long jump (19-2 3/4), sophomore Sondra Rauterkus in the high jump (5-07), sophomore Lauren Brownrigg in the 3000 steeplechase (12:07.9), freshman Abby Emsick in the shot put (45-06 1/4) and the discus (159-04.00) and freshman Jenna Bimbi in the 1,500-meter run (4:51.8).

Junior Laura Lavoie (10:02.9) and sophomore Megan Manthe (10:05.9) went 1-2 in the 3,000.

Second-place finishers for the KU women were sophomore Brooklyn Hann in the 100 hurdles (14.3) and freshman Becca Raynes in the pole vault (9-06 1/4).

The 4×100 relay team (46.9) also placed second.

For the KU men, sophomore Brandon Hodges finished first in the 1,500 (4:03.5), and freshman Cameron Schwehr won the 5,000 (15:11.3).

The Jayhawks had five runners-up, including senior Anson Jackson in the 110 hurdles (14.2), freshman Lantz Tolson in the 400 hurdles (58.6), sophomore Dan Ferguson in the 3,000 steeplechase (9:55.8), junior T.J. Hackler in the high jump (6-8) and senior Vadim Gvozdetskiy in the pole vault (16-4 3/4).

Kansas also collected three regional qualifiers with Emsick’s mark in the discus, Rauterkus’ mark in the high jump and Gvozdetskiy’s leap in the pole vault.

This is the first year that the outdoor track season will have a regional championship.

Kansas will travel April 3-5 to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Relays.