OXFORD, Miss. – Indiana State men's and women's track & field won four more event titles to close out a productive opening weekend to the outdoor season at the Joe Walker Invite hosted by Ole Miss on Saturday.
 
The Sycamore men's hurdlers adjusted to the outdoor 110-meter hurdles just fine after two strong openers from seniors Marcus Neely and Daley Carter.
 
Neely – the indoor 60-meter hurdles champion, the defending outdoor 110-meter runner-up and a two-time NCAA East Region qualifier – took the title on a winning time of 14.01 seconds, beating out former Sycamore All-American and Olympian Greggmar Swift at 14.04. Neely's time currently ranks seventh in the NCAA, second in the East Region and No. 1 in the Valley as of press time.
 
Carter finished not far behind in sixth at 14.52, the 49th-best in the NCAA and 27th-best in the East Region at this early point in the outdoor season. Carter hasn't run the 110-meter hurdles since the 2015 season, in which he qualified for the East Regional meet. Carter missed the 2016 outdoor season due to injury.
 
Former ISU great Max Tuttle completed the Sycamore sweep with a win in the 400-meter hurdles at 52.37.
 
Sophomore distance star Brooke Moore picked up her outdoor season right where the indoor season left off with an impressive opening win in the 800-meter run. After an indoor season that saw Moore break both the mile (4:43.04) and 3K (9:35.60) records, Moore has already vaulted herself up to sixth all-time on the ISU outdoor list with her winning time of 2:09.47 (she previously ranked ninth at 2:11.53 from her freshman season). Currently her time ranks eighth in the NCAA, fifth in the East Region and first in the Valley.
 
Also finishing high were Brittany Neeley (10th, 2:16.03) and Aleksey Green (11th, 2:16.51). This is the first meet of the 2017 season for Neeley, who missed the entire indoor season due to injury.
 
Indiana State also swept the men's and women's 400-meter dashes with two great opening performances by Alethia Marrero and Tyrell Dowdell.
 
Marrero, a 2015 All-American in the 800, continued her impressive comeback season with a 55.75 second victory in the 400 – currently the 30th-best time in the East Region. During that mystical 2015 season, Marrero ran a 53.48 in the 400 (in addition to 2:02.67 in the 800 and 57.71 in the 400-meter hurdles). Marrero won the 800 at the MVC Indoor Championships this past year and was a key member of the All-MVC 4x400-meter relay team.
 
She was also a key member of that relay today, running the third leg of the third-place relay of Imani Davis, Oschtisha Jackson, Marrero and Jamie Newsome, who ran 3:49.74.
 
Davis and Newsome both ranked highly in the open 400 alongside Marrero, with the freshman Davis finishing 12th at 57.41 and Newsome 18th at 57.93.
 
Dowdell, meanwhile, won the men's edition of the 400 at a very solid open of 48.18 – the 37th-best in the East Region at the moment.
 
Jaynard Keys and Tristan Parmley also continued their success from Day One with strong performances in the 100-meter dash. Keys finished ninth at 10.93 with Parmley in 14th at 11.01. Both were also members on ISU's 4x100-meter relay that finished runner-up at 41.43.
 
Freshman sprinter Shana Cooper followed suit after her impressive opening 200-meter last night, finishing ninth in the 100 today at 12.48. Cooper was also the anchor on ISU's fourth-place 4x100 alongside Ayanna Morgan, Ahmanah Woods and Oschtisha Jackson, which ran 47.22.
 
Morgan kept her recent success in the hurdles going as well, running a near half-second PR in the 100-meter hurdles at 14.46 to finish fourth overall. Sophomore Caitlyn Redmon finished ninth at 14.66.
 
The Sycamores also had several high finishes in the field, including Jamie Newsome in the triple jump (fifth, 11.87m/38-11.50, 39th NCAA East Region), Jaime Murtagh in the high jump (seventh, 2.01m/6-07.00), and two ninth-place finals visits in the shot put by Ryan Chestnut (15.30m/50-02.50) and Cassaundra Roper (13.47m/44-02.50).
 
Indiana State will stay a bit closer to home next week with a trip across the Illinois border to nearby Eastern Illinois for the Big Blue Classic on March 31 and April 1.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.