photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas sophomore Mason Meinershagen competes in the pole vault during the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Sophomore Mason Meinershagen’s silver medal in the women’s pole vault headlined a busy day of action for Kansas on Friday, the second day of the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Rock Chalk Park.

Meinershagen entered with a No. 6 national ranking, having recently reset the KU outdoor program record at 4.51 meters — just ahead of eighth-ranked teammate Erica Ellis’ 4.50. Meanwhile, Baylor sophomore Molly Haywood, who beat out Meinershagen 4.61 to 4.56 in the indoor meet earlier in the semester, entered at No. 3 with an outdoor mark of 4.58.

This time around, Haywood claimed first place by a wider margin, clearing 4.52 as no other vaulter did better than 4.31 — the mark accomplished by Meinershagen and BYU senior Rebekah Erikson.

KU freshman Madi Snody finished seventh at a personal-best 4.21, while Ellis was eighth, No. 20 Gabby Hoke 11th, and Kade Joslin 16th.

The Jayhawks’ other best result of the day came in their final event, the 3,000-meter steeplechase, as freshman Ebba Cronholm took third place with her time of 10 minutes, 0.55 seconds, the best of her young career, just behind West Virginia’s No. 7 Sarah Tait and BYU’s No. 9 Taylor Lovell.

Elsewhere on Friday, Tayton Klein and Alexander Jung entered the final event of the decathlon, the 1,500 meters, at third and fourth, respectively. They finished in those same positions in the 1,500 and were unable to surpass BYU’s Ben Barton, who took the gold, and Houston’s Grant Levesque, who took silver. Klein’s score of 7,629 equaled a personal best, while Jung, owner of the school-record 7,738 but finishing on Friday at 7,532, was unable to defend his title from the 2024 Big 12 Championship.

KU freshman Conor Dunback actually won the 1,500-meter race as part of the decathlon and finished seventh in the final standings, with a personal best of his own at 7,231.

Two more freshmen excelled in the shot put and placed fifth. Jacob Cookinham, came in fifth in the men’s shot put with his best throw of the season at 19.59 meters. (Teammates Bryce Foster and Dimitrios Antonatos came in 14th and 17th, respectively.) Later in the day, Madeleine Fey was fifth in the women’s event with a personal best of her own at 16.11.

Junior George Jackson was also fifth, in his case in the men’s long jump at 7.16 meters. Klein, who had previously won the decathlon-specific edition of the long jump at 7.31, ended up in 10th at 7.04 this time.

After two days of action, KU is seventh in the team standings among 13 men’s teams and eighth among 16 women’s teams. The event concludes on Saturday.

Preliminary action

KU sophomore Pearl Awanya finished in second in preliminary competition for the women’s 400 meters, right between the No. 10 and No. 6 athletes in the event. Awanya’s time of 52.84 won her heat, and she’ll be back in action for the finals at 6:15 p.m.

Emmaculate Jemutai, who previously made a strong statement on Thursday by leading wire-to-wire in the women’s 1,500 meters prelims and claiming first place overall at 4:29.76, also qualified in the 800 meters on Friday. Her personal-best time of 2:03.73 won her heat. She will now compete at both 5:35 p.m. (in the 1,500) and 6:55 p.m. (in the 800).

TJ Robinson moved on in the men’s 800 meters by running a personal-record time of 1:48.31, while teammates Garrett Wilmes and Grant Lockwood narrowly missed out on qualification. Robinson will be back in action for the final at 6:45 p.m.

Previously, on Thursday, KU sophomore Paul Ngasharr’s time of 3:38.35 seconds in the prelims for the men’s 1,500 meters was the best among non-heat winners and advanced him to the finals of the event, set for 5:25 p.m. on Saturday. From the group of five Jayhawks competing, junior Tanner Talley also qualified at 3:45.90, which was good enough for first place in Heat 2.