CHARLESTON, Ill. ? Indiana State men's and women's track teams came away with resounding wins over Loyola and Western Illinois and split results against host Eastern Illinois in the Sycamores' first indoor track and field action of the season on Saturday afternoon.
ISU's men posted scores of 117-35 over Loyola and 110-57 over Western Illinois for wins, but narrowly fell to Eastern Illinois 85.5-89.5. The women would make a victorious sweep at the meet with scores of 119-28 over Loyola, 112-54 over WIU and 93.5-79.5 over EIU.
Headlining the Sycamore performances for the women, were Myra Bess and Valara Anderson picking up first-place in the women's 60-meter hurdles (9.21) and 60-meter dash (7.75), respectively. Mary Kate Conway would become the third ISU sprinter on the women's side to cross the line in first, with her 59.39 performance in the 400-meter dash.
Freshman Erica Moore picked up her first collegiate win with a 1:34.23 finish in the 600-meter dash. The time was seven seconds faster than her nearest competitor and two seconds off the all-time mark of 1:32.01 set by her coach, Angela (Bruecker) Martin in 2001.
Hannah Weide and Dani Prince finished first in their respective events as Weide recorded a 2:21.71 time in the 800-meters and Prince finished the mile in 5:05.36.
In the field events, Indiana State picked up three individual victories with Janae Bridges' 18 feet 8 inch mark in the long jump and Santia Spight's clearance of 5 feet 8 inches in the high jump. Freshman Kylie Hutson's 12 feet 6.25 inch mark in the pole vault translated into her first intercollegiate win and places her No. 2 all-time at ISU in the pole vault, second only to Melissa Ullenbruch's mark of 13 feet 3.5 inches set in 2005.
“We had a number of strong performances today,” Women's head coach John Gartland said of the team's performance. “This is a good way to begin the season with a win over some good competition.”
For the men, Jeramie Gray (60m, 6.86) in his first intercollegiate meet, Jordan Fife (mile, 4:15.42) and Scott Keeney (3,000m, 8:49.15) would record wins on the track, with several others just behind in second place in many of the other events.
The Sycamores log jammed the top of the distance events with three of the top five places held by Indiana State in the mile and 3,000-meters. ISU's depth in the distance events continued to be evident as the Sycamores raced to a 10:13.56 win in the distance medley relay.
In the field events, Jeremy Gillingham, Anthony Bertoli and Steve Daniel would each record first place marks. Gillingham threw 59 feet 7.5 inches in the 35lb weight throw in his first action in over a year after a redshirt year in 2005-06. Bertoli picked up where he left off after his freshman campaign to clear 15 feet 5.75 inches in the pole vault while Daniel bounded 49 feet 10 inches in the triple jump.
“This wasn't a bad performance for our first meet of the season,” Men's head coach John McNichols said after the meet. “Overall, we didn't perform as I would have hoped, but it gives us some work to do over the break.”
The Sycamores will see their next action when Indiana State hosts Illinois State on January 13 in a dual meet with the Redbirds.
