Manners Soars To MAC Long Jump Title

Friday, February 25

Kent, Ohio

10:45 a.m.

Central Michigan University

Mid-American Conference Championships

Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf

2/25/2022 8:32:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

KENT, Ohio – You can talk about seedings, personal bests, expectations, and track record.

None of it matters unless one shows up on the day that counts.

Central Michigan's Hayley Manners did the latter on Friday, leaping a personal-best 20 feet, 5 ¼ inches (6.23 meters) to win the long jump at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships at Kent State Field House.

Manners, a redshirt sophomore from Etobicoke, Ont., Can., became the second CMU female to win the MAC indoor long jump title after Nadia Williams captured back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020.

"She's been really, really close the last couple meets," CMU Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Jenny Swieton said. "You could tell she was ready to do something big, so it wasn't unexpected."

Manners' previous indoor best was 6.03 meters. She was second in the MAC Indoor meet a year ago and eighth in 2020. She placed fifth in the 2021 league outdoor championships.

"She's a gamer," Swieton said. "She has that little X factor to bring it strong when it counts. She's really strong mentally and has a good head on her shoulders and that's where that comes into play.

"Her entire career, she's brought it at the conference meet. It's really good to have somebody like that, obviously. She's an awesome team leader and she's a captain. She's willing to do everything extra for the team."

Manners finished nearly 4 inches in front of runner-up Jazmyn Smith (20-1 ½) of Northern Illinois.

The Chippewas are in fifth place in the 12-team field with 17 points. Toledo (35) is first, three points ahead of Miami (Ohio). The meet concludes on Saturday.

The Chippewas scored in three other events on Friday as Aliyah Boeve placed sixth in the weight throw, Olivia Hankey was sixth in the pentathlon, and CMU's Jelena Prescott, Emma Francis, Maija Rettelle and Natalie Newcombe combined to place eighth in the distance medley relay.

Two other Chippewas, Reghan Draper (60-meter dash) and Alexis Gourrier (800-meter run), advanced out of their respect heats and into Saturday finals.

"Everybody was fighting today," Swieton said. "Different people are at different levels, so it might be that they were fighting to make a final, or fighting to finish higher than they were ranked coming in. Most of our people are performing better than was expected on paper. Overall, we had a pretty good day."

Boeve, a freshman, threw a personal-best 18 meters (59-0) in the weight throw; and Hankey's 3514 pentathlon score was also her best.

Hankey, a junior, was fifth in the 60-meter hurdles; tied for third in the high jump; finished ninth in the shot put; eighth in the long jump; and third in the 800 meters.

Prescott, Francis, Rettelle and Newcombe teamed up to finish in 12:22.16 in the DMR. It marked the first time that Prescott, Francis and Newcombe, all of whom are underclassmen, have run in the event. It also marked the first time that Rettelle, a junior, has competed in a MAC meet since the 2020 indoor championships because of injury.

"It was a good day for us and we're happy with the performances we had," Swieton said. "As a team we're not where we want to be in the future, but we're happy with what the kids that we have are doing right now. There's definitely some things to celebrate and be excited about for the future."