CLOVIS, Calif. – After two strong qualifying days of the 2024 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the UNLV track & field team aimed high for the final day of the conference championships on Saturday. The Scarlet & Gray would find three medals in the final day of action, two individual gold medals and one silver relay.
 
Kennedi Porter highlighted the Rebels' success at the event, the junior taking part in all three aforementioned medals. Her top race came from the women's 200m, winning the event by .22 seconds to record the fifth-fastest time in UNLV history. Her 22.98 final time brought in the season-sweep in the event after winning the indoor championships earlier this year, the first Rebel to win the event since 2002. She wouldn't be the only Rebel to score in the event, Jana Lakner finishing eighth overall with a new personal-best time in the event at 23.98. 
 
Porter also claimed the women's 100m earlier in the meet, winning the two shortest racing events on a 11.33 final time. Becoming the first UNLV student-athlete to win the gold medal since 2005, she'd claim the win by .11 seconds on a new personal-best mark.
 
The third and final UNLV medal at the championships stemmed from the women's 4x100m relay, the team of Chinyere Okoro, Porter, AnnaKay Maitland and Shakeira Bowra teaming up for the second-place spot in the event. The team would put together a final time of 44.65, beating out the third-place finisher by .31 seconds and .49 seconds from the fourth-place finisher. Later the program would excel in the 4x400m relay, combining for a final time of 3:39.88 that marked a season-best time for the program in 2024. That relay team notching the result consisted of Lakner, Porter, Kaelin Gowdy and Endya Scott for fourth overall.
 
The Rebels featured several other strong performances in the final day of the Mountain West championships, Laker picking up a fourth-place finish in the women's 400m alongside her 200m finish. She'd end the event on a final time of 54.02, Jaydea Carter also finding a fourth-place spot earlier in the meet in the women's 100m hurdles. Carter's time would slam a new personal-best mark, dropping .29 seconds from her previous PB set just the day prior in prelims. Carter would later score in the 400m hurdles on a 1:01.56 final time, finishing eighth overall in the event.
 
The Scarlet & Gray had a handful of notable field performances as well, Roxene Simpson picking up the highest finish Saturday out of the field events with a sixth-place spot in the women's discus. She'd throw a best distance of 49.60m (162' 8"), reaching inside the event's top eight to score by just under two meters. Grace Cunningham also picked up some points for the Rebels as she tied for the eighth-place spot in the women's high jump, reaching 1.63m (5' 4.25") in the event. Camryn Harris also finished with a personal-best distance in the triple jump on Saturday.

UNLV now will wait for the rest of the NCAA DI conference championships before finding out their next step, hoping for a spot at the NCAA West Regionals meet in Fayette, Ark., later this month. If invited, the meet will stretch from Wednesday, May 22 through Saturday, May 25. To get updates on all things Rebel track & field, links to the championships can be found on the team's schedule page. You can also get live updates on how the Scarlet & Gray are faring on the team's X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram accounts.


FRIDAY
Coming off of their strong opening day of the 2024 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday with another impressive performance on Friday for day two of the conference championships. The Rebels picked up their first set of points from their field events, hoisting four more qualifiers to their respected finals events on Saturday.
 
The Scarlet & Gray's points came from Krishna Jayasankar, the sophomore making her way into finals in the women's shot put. After qualifying in the ninth-place spot in the prelims session, Jayasankar would boost herself up two spots to finish seventh overall in the event. She produced a toss of 14.4m (47' 3") as her farthest mark of the night, scoring points for UNLV by .38m.
 
UNLV posted three other student-athletes with top-five finishes after their respective prelim races, Jana Lakner picked up a fourth-place finish in the women's 400m to be the top competitor who didn't win their heat. The sophomore finished on a final time of 53.69 for a new personal-best mark, aiming for a medal for the Rebels tomorrow. Freshman Kaelin Gowdy also excelled in the event, picking up a new personal-best time.
 
Jaydea Carter would join Lakner with a personal-best mark of her own through the prelims session, rounding out the top-five competitors in the women's 100m hurdles. Carter's time of 13.74 pushed down her career-best by .03 seconds, also looking to pick up a medal during Saturday's finals session.
 
The Rebels' final qualifier would be Kennedi Porter, the junior notching her second qualifier of the weekend through the women's 100m. Porter found her way into Saturday's 100m finals on an 11.5 final time, technically posting the third-fastest time out of any Mountain West runner but didn't top her heat.
 
The Rebels will look to cap the weekend on a high note in tomorrow's finals session, competing in the women's discus, high jump, 4x100m relay, triple jump, 100m hurdles, 400m, 100m, 200m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay. The championships' final day will kick off at 1 p.m. PT on Saturday, May 11. 
 
To get updates on all things Rebel track & field, links to the championships can be found on the team's schedule page. You can also get live updates on how the Scarlet & Gray are faring on the team's X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram accounts.


THURSDAY
The UNLV track & field team kicked off day one of the 2024 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday night, only participating in a handful of events to start the weekend on the short first day. The Rebels found success in several areas of the meet, posting a trio of qualifiers for the conference finals on Saturday and another personal-best time on top of that.
 
The Scarlet & Gray's high point came in the women's 200m, the team slotting three different student-athletes in the meet's top-10 finishers along and two of them advancing to the finals. Kennedi Porter produced the top time out of all the participants in the Mountain West, picking up a personal-best mark in the race off a 23.22 final time. Teammate Jana Lakner joined Porter with a personal-best race of her own, dropping almost a quarter second in the event to finish eighth on a 24.05 time in the prelim session. Sophia Alexander also picked up a great race of her own, posting a personal-best finish in the event.
 
Jaydea Carter was the third Rebel on the night to pick up a spot in the Mountain West finals later this weekend, rounding out the selections as the ninth-place spot after the preliminary race. Her final time was registered as a 1:01.11 in the event, beating out the 10th-place competitor by .09 seconds.
 
The Rebels will aim to qualify more competitors in Saturday's portion of the conference championships, placing participants in the women's shot put, long jump, 100m hurdles, 400m and 100m events. The team's journey through the Mountain West meet is scheduled for a start time of 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 10 with the women's shot put. 
 
To get updates on all things Rebel track & field, links to the championships can be found on the team's schedule page. You can also get live updates on how the Scarlet & Gray are faring on the team's X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram accounts.