CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The Drake University men's and women's track and field teams scored in 13 events on the final day of the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championship to earn an eighth-place finish in the women's standings while the men were seventh.

Early in the field events on Sunday, Kayla Bell (Bollingbrook, Ill.) continued her stellar sophomore season by unleashing a school record jump in the triple jump to finish fifth. Her leap of 40-9.75 was the best of her career by nearly 17 inches.

“Kayla Bell came out swinging,” said Drake head coach Natasha Kaiser-Brown. “She took the lead, but missed on her sixth jump.”

Drake collected points on the track early in the second day of action with Rob McCann (Mississauga, Ontario) finishing third in the mile with a time of 4:14.05 on a day that also saw him finish 15^th in the 3,000 meters.

“Rob went back-and-forth with the lead in the mile and just when you thought he was going to settle in behind another runner, he would reappear in the lead,” Kaiser-Brown said. “It was a tremendous effort and a tremendous race.”

Taylor Scholl (Prior Lake, Minn.) also scored in the women's mile with a seventh-place finish white Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa) turned in a time of 9:48.42 to finish fifth with a personal best.

The Bulldogs recorded one of their most impressive performances of the day in the women's 60-meter hurdles as freshman Mary Young (Urbandale, Iowa), running in lane eight, finished third with a time of 8.49, a personal best for the freshman who dropped nearly two-tenths of a second off her qualifying time.

“Mary [Young], Emma [Huston] and Rai [Ahmed-Green] were so impressive,” Kaiser-Brown said. “Each one had their hands full and they delivered. In the mile and 800 meters, Taylor [Scholl] and Sammy [Nielsen] are gamers. They might not have been highly favored going into the finals but when they rounded the turn for the homestretch they started picking people off.”

Later in the men's 60 meters, junior Pierce Vincent (Fayetteville, Ga.) finished fifth in his first MVC Championship with a 6.93 finish.

The 400 and 800 meters also yielded points for the Bulldogs with Steven Jordan (MacFarland, Wis.) following up Saturday's fifth-place finish in the 200 meters by claiming sixth in the 400 meters in 49.92. In the women's event, freshman Rai Ahmed-Green (Irvine, Calif.) was seventh in 56.64. James Saxton (La Crosse, Wis.) led the Bulldogs in the men's 800-meter race by finishing fourth in 1:54.60 while Samantha Nielsen (Maplewood, Minn.) was fifth in the women's field in 2:12.96, a personal best for the sophomore.

“James [Saxton] had to really compete as there were 10 people in the final,” Kaiser-Brown said. “He handled himself very nicely.”

Also in the women's triple jump, Taryn Rolle also finished eighth in the field with a jump of 39-5. The men's triple jump competition saw sophomore Johnathan Osifuye (Woodbury, Minn.) finish eighth with a mark of 47-5.25. Finally, Ryan Cook (Colorado Springs, Colo.) continued his string of scoring at MVC Championship events by clearing 6-5.5 to finish in a tie for sixth in the long jump.

Indiana State claimed both the men's and women's championship in the team standings while Southern Illinois was second in the women's competition and Wichita State in second in the men's standings.