BOLIVAR, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's track & field team got a Great Lakes Valley Conference championship from Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) and a number of additional high finishes to propel it to its second straight conference championship Saturday afternoon, as it captured the title at the GLVC Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at Southwest Baptist University.

The title is also the sixth outdoor championship won by the Miners in the GLVC as they accumulated 176.5 points to outdistance Lewis by 38.5 points in the standings.  S&T repeated as the GLVC men's outdoor track champion for the second time – it won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015 – and won its third championship in the last four conference meets.

S&T's title also led to the team earning two of the conference's major awards following the meet, as head coach Shaun Meinecke was named as the league's Coach of the Year and Otto Knittel (Spring Hill, KS/Spring Hill), who finished second in the decathlon, fifth in the javelin throw and was part of the 4x400-meter relay team that finished fifth, was selected as the GLVC's Freshman of the Year.

Fairless earned his second straight GLVC title in the high jump by clearing 6-9½ to outdistance the field in the event.  His first miss in the competition came at that height when he was the only one remaining, but he cleared the mark on the second try before bowing out at 7-0¼.

He was among two Miners to score in the high jump, as Nick Janke (Rolla, MO/Rolla) finished in a tie for fourth with a clearance of 6-0¾.  Even though Fairless was the only Miner to win a title Saturday after the squad had captured three individual titles on Friday, S&T was able to pile up numerous finishes among the top eight that included six second place showings.

Lucas Rackers (Florissant, MO/St. Louis University HS) had a second place showing and also set a school record in the 1,500-meters as he recorded a time of 3:48.44, as did Kyle Burke (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield) in the 110-meter hurdles where he was edged by Lewis's Connor Wagner; Burke had a time of 14.76 seconds to Wagner's 14.75.

Jarett Johnson (Webb City, MO/Webb City) recorded a second place performance in the javelin with his top throw of 193-5 and was joined in the top eight by Knittel, who finished in fifth place with a mark of 175-1.  Aaron Toben (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette) got a second place effort of his own in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.86 seconds – which also made an NCAA Division II provisional cut -- and was joined there by Sam Wright (Hillsboro, MO/Hillsboro), who got seventh in 55.74 seconds.

Nathan Swadley (Willard, MO/Willard) fell just short of repeating as the conference champion in the shot put, posting a mark of 56-8¾ to finish second to Quincy's Paden Lewis in the event.  The Miners went two-three in the event as Tyler Marchert (Frankfort, IL/Lincoln-Way East) got the third place shot with his throw of 51-3½.

Three Miners also scored in the decathlon, where Knittel finished second overall with 6,203 points, Janke in third with 6,126 and Kamden Lockwood (Herscher, IL/Herscher) in seventh with 5,403. 

The Miners had three scoring performances in the triple jump, led by Luke Allen's (Jefferson City, MO/Calvary Lutheran) fourth place finish with a mark of 46-2½.   Aaron Jones (Kansas City, MO/Ruskin) had a leap of 44-2 to finish in sixth place, while Noah Richardson (Hillsboro, MO/Grandview) placed seventh with his jump of 43-10.

S&T's 4x100-meter relay team of Samuel Schmidt, Allen, Burke and Toben placed fourth with a time of 41.98 seconds.  Schmidt also scored in two sprint events Saturday, taking third in the 200-meters in 22 seconds flat and seventh in the 100-meters in a time of 10.99 seconds.

The Miners closed the meet by finishing fifth in the 4x400-meter relay as the team of Toben, Knittel, Wright and Michael Pate (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette) posted a time of 3:20.40.

S&T also received an eighth place finish from Hayes Pateidl (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) Saturday in the 1,500-meters in 3:54.51.

Dakota Doupe (Jones, OK/Jones) was named as the team's recipient of the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship award following the meet.

Missouri S&T will host the Miner Last Chance Meet Thursday at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.