MANKATO, MN – Record efforts by Hayden Von Wald and Raheem Taitt-Best led the University of Mary on championship Friday at the 2024 Northern Sun Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
 
Von Wald, behind a career-best performance, was the runner-up in the men's long jump. After scratching on his first attempt, the senior landed a mark of 7.60 meters in round two. His third attempt of the day was magic as the native of Selby, SD, exploded to leap 7.78 meters (25-06.25) to replace his own record. It was the last mark of the day for Von Wald as he scratched on his last three tries.
 
Two other Marauders joined Von Wald on the podium. Jorgen Paulson placed fifth (7.40 meters) and Logan Wentz claimed seventh (7.32 meters) to score points for UMary.
 
Malachi Stevenson also scored for the Marauders on Friday. He placed 5^th overall in the decathlon with 5,917 points. He won the javelin and posted top three finishes in the long jump, high jump and the 1,500 meter run.
 
Taitt-Best advanced to the finals in two events. He broke his own team record in the 200 with a time of 20.71 as he placed fourth overall in the preliminaries. He also took third in the 400 in 48.70 seconds to move forward to championship Saturday.
 
Several Marauders will race Saturday after qualifying in the preliminaries on Friday:

• Jorgen Paulson will run in the 100 meter dash after claiming 3^rd in the preliminaries (10.51). He will also run in the 200 after winning his preliminaries (21.14 seconds).
• A pair of Marauders move to the championships in the 400 meter hurdles as Osiel Cano (55.16) took fifth and Akil Howell (55.58) was eight.
• Guillermo Fregoso earned a spot in the 1500 finals with a 9^th place finish

 
The Marauders are 9^th with 20 points after the first day after seven of 21 events are scored.
 
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