Pride sweep golds in pole vault and earn bronze in 4x100 and decathlon at Heart Outdoor Championships

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - In the final full team competition of the 2025-26 season, the Clarke University track and field team produced medals in four events as well as earning All Conference finishes in nine other events on Friday and Saturday at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships.

Two of the four medals won on the weekend were gold and from the same event as senior Grace Squires and freshman Keifer Landes swept the pole vault in Cedar Rapids on Friday with Squires producing her seventh pole vault gold in conference in eight tries with a gold-clinching clearance of 3.08 meters on her third try ahead of a first try clearance at 3.23 meters for the official winning mark while Landes records his first conference championship to cap off a strong freshman campaign with a gold medal winning clearance of 4.50 meters.

Thought it wasn't a conference championship performance, the men's 4x100 meter relay team of Gavayne Smith, Joshua Musonda, Bradey Huseman, and Jake Etherington ran an NAIA Championship B Standard time of 40.99 seconds to finish with the bronze as well as breaking their previously held school record from earlier this season.

The fourth and final medal earned by the Pride came in the decathlon when Nick Zaprianov produced a third place point total of 5810 to finish 260 points behind the gold medal winner and 78 points away from a silver as he was able to use a 51.34 in the 400 meters, a 3.75 meter pole vault, and 43.14 meter javelin throw to go move up three places after the first four events had the CU freshman in sixth.

Clarke's All Conference Honorable Mention finishes included three more relays in the men's 4x400 of John Raven, Musonda, Etherington, and Zaprianov running a 3:18.76 along with both the women's 4x100 of Tiana Culmer, Gracee Roig, Hailey Packer, and Isabelle Matthews running an even 50.00 seconds, as that same four-woman unit posted a 4:09.57 in the women's 4x400 meter relay for all three teams to finish in sixth place.

Back to the individual events, Ja'kobe Kizer was a double All-Heart Honorable Mention in the triple jump and long jump with a fourth place in the triple at 13.99 meters and also jumping a 6.84 meter long jump as Matthews also scored similarly in her field events with a fourth place javelin throw of 40.52 meters then clearing a high jump bar at 1.47 meters for a fourth and fifth place finish respectively as well.

The final two All-Heart Honorable Mention finishes yet to be mentioned both came on the track with Etherington running the 100-meter dash to a sixth place 10.81 seconds in the finals after qualifying seventh with a 10.75 second run then Jaycie Franco posted a sixth place time of 12:08.55 in the 3,000 meter steeplechase to close out a strong distance career.

Full Clarke Results: https://live.kauderresults.com/meets/68810/teams/1614396

Matthews and the 4x100 team will be the lone members locked into the NAIA Championship meet as Matthews qualified in the javelin ahead of this weekend's relay qualifier with the team expected to possibly find a last chance opportunity for select athletes following the conference championships.