PITTSBURG, Kan. – Missouri S&T opened competition in the two-day Gorilla Classic with seven performances among the top 15 in events during the first day of the meet.

Jacob Luebbert (Warsaw, MO/Warsaw) got third place in the weight throw with a top mark of 65-11 to head the Miner efforts on Friday.  Xander Hall (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) went over the bar at 14-1¼ to finish 10th in the open pole vault, while Paulvin Horton (Raleigh, NC/Garner) was 12th in the long jump at 23-1¼ and Owen Fraser (Kirksville, MO/Kirksville) was 14th in the weight throw at 55-0.  Lucas Rackers (Florissant, MO/St. Louis University HS) finished in 15th place in the 5,000-meters with a time of 14:58.30.

In the preliminaries on Friday, Kyle Burke (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield) earned a spot in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with his time of 8.31 seconds.

The women's team had two finishers among the top 15 in their events, as Olivia Henkel cleared 5-2½ to finish seventh in the open high jump and the distance medley relay team of Grace Johnson, Lauryn Fenoglio, Maya Wright and Grace Giesler finished 13th in 13:40.97.

The meet will conclude Saturday evening.