EMPORIA, Kan. – The outdoor Track and Field Championships mark the final event Azusa Pacific will compete in as a member of Division II, and the four-athlete contingent is doing its best to go out with a bang.  Mark Burdin finds himself among the contenders after the first day of the decathlon, while Emma Hein finds herself chasing a former Cougar in the heptathlon.

Burdin got off to a slow start, near the back of the field of 16 competitors in the opening 100-meter dash, but worked his way back into the pack with a nice result of 6.96 meters in the long jump.  As the group reached the middle events of the day, Burdin made his move; first winning the shot put with a toss of 14.95 meters, then a career-best mark in the high jump of 1.99 meters.  Those two results pulled the junior all the way to within 12 points of the lead after four events.  While giving up some ground in the 400 meter run to close the day (despite a second-straight personal best of 51.25 seconds), Burdin still ended day one with 3,896 points, in fourth place overall and less than 100 points off the lead.

On the women's side, freshman Emma Hein found herself in 14th in the heptathlon at the end of day one, having her best result in the four events of the opening day in the shot put, where her throw of 12.58 meters earned her 700 points, fourth most of the 16 competitors.  Leading the pack is former Azusa Pacific student Esther Conde-Turpin, now representing West Texas A&M.

Both Burdin and Hein will compete in the remainder of their events on Friday, at which time Kristina Rakocevic will also take her turn in the women's discus.  Then on the final day of competition, Hannah Richardson will compete in the women's shot put.