Bolivar, Mo. – Thursday was the start to an exciting weekend at Southwest Baptist University as they hosted day one of the GLVC Championships. Both SBU men's and women's teams earned six points toward the standings landing them in 4^th place after day one.
 
The men's teams points came in the hammer throw as senior Tyler Hart took the first podium of the weekend with a 3^rd place finish. He broke his own school record with a mark of 55.40-meters, beating the 4^th place finisher by .19-meters. Olivia Littleton on the women's side earned six points for SBU with a podium finish in the 10,000-meter run. She took 3^rd place with a time of 35.38.35.
 
Three Bearcats competed in the multi events with two women in the heptathlon and one man in the decathlon. Kelsey Rhoades is currently on pace to take 3^rd place in the heptathlon after four of the seven events. She holds 2781 points just 127 points behind first place, with her best event being the 200-meter dash where she took 2^nd place. Izzie Salsman currently sits in 8^th place with 2158 points. Andrew Rhoades, in the decathlon, is in 2^nd place after half of the event s withs 3378 points. He took first place in both the long jump and 400-meter dash with five events still to go.
 
Natalie Gerdes and Gavin Duchscherer both competed in the 1500-meter preliminaries and qualified for the finals that will take place on Saturday.
 
These multi competitors will return on Friday starting at 9:00 a.m. along with many other Bearcats beginning their Championship on Friday.
 
Men:
Hammer Throw:
3^rd – Tyler Hart
12^th – Morgan Nichols
 
1500m:
9^th – Gavin Duchscherer – qualified for finals
 
Women:
Hammer Throw:
10^th – Dylan Skinner
11^th – Carli Burchett
15^th – Londyn Jones
16^th – Alexis O'Farrell
 
1500m:
8^th – Natalie Gerdes - qualified for finals
 
10,000m:
3^rd – Olivia Littleton
12^th – Marie Daggett
16^th – Riley Arnold
17^th – Audrey Goatley