CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Indiana State Track & Field teams will split squad once again this weekend to compete at the EIU Friday Night Special on Friday and the Alex Wilson Invitational on Saturday.
Both teams remain in the top-15 of the Great Lakes Regional rankings, with the men holding on to 15th in the region and the women moving up to 12th this week after being ranked 14th last week.
A delegation of five Sycamore distance runners will make their way to Notre Dame for the Alex Wilson Invite on Saturday for a chance to compete against some of the nation's best athletes. After breaking the school-record in the 3K last week,
Brooke Moore will race in the 800-meter run at Notre Dame where she already owns the second-best time in the Missouri Valley Conference of 2:09.14.
Fellow distance standout
Akis Medrano will also race on Saturday at the Alex Wilson Invite, but the senior will compete in the mile run and try to improve on his sixth-best time in the Valley of 4:07.85. He will be joined by
Isaac Bentz and
Ryan Cash in the mile, while
Cale Kilian will compete in the 800-meter run.
At Eastern Illinois, the men will be led by freshman hurdler
Matthew Lewis-Banks on the track. Lewis-Banks will compete in the 60-meter hurdles on Friday, an event in which he owns the best time in the Valley at 7.93 which is also the 49th-best time in the nation. Last weekend at Vanderbilt he took bronze in the hurdles with a time of 7.96.
In the field for the men,
Nick Schultz and the ISU pole vaulters will look to lead the way at EIU. Schultz recorded the third-best mark in conference in the high jump of 2.05m (6-08.75) at the Meyo Invitational. The pole vault will feature freshman
Callan Whitehouse who vaulted to the fourth-best mark in the Valley of 4.92m (16-01.75) at the
John Gartland Invitational.
On the women's side,
Bri Buggs will run the 60-meter dash for the blue and white, an event in which she is sixth in the conference from the Illini Invitational where she raced to a time in 7.71. She will be joined by
Esther Chukwunwike,
Ayanna Morgan and
Tasjia Thomas.
Morgan and Thomas will also compete in the jumps for the Trees on Friday. Last weekend at the Music City Challenge, Morgan recorded the second-best jump in the MVC in the long jump at 5.91m (19-04.75).
Tasjia Thomas also performed well at the Music City Challenge, as the junior recorded a personal-best jump of 11.91m (39-01.00) in the triple jump which was also seventh-longest mark in school history.
Action at Eastern Illinois is slated to begin at 3 p.m. ET with the men's weight throw, while the distance events for Indiana State at Notre Dame will start at 1:20 p.m. ET.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track & Field teams, make sure to check out
GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including
Facebook and
Twitter.
