EVANSVILLE, Ind. - On a record-setting weekend, the University of Evansville men's and women's track and field teams found success in their second meet of the season at the Don DeNoon Invitational in Carbondale, Ill. hosted by Southern Illinois.
In all, five program records were broken by the Aces including one record which had stood since 1985.
To open the weekend, the Aces had four athletes compete on Friday night. Freshman Ian Alberts led Evansville with an eighth-place finish with a height of 3.85 meters while fellow freshman Kevin Yeung finished without recording a height. In the women's long jump, freshman Lizzy Walston set a program record with a ninth-place finish with a distance of 4.51 meters. Junior Hayley Elliot also competed in the women's long jump, finishing in 12th with a distance of 3.49 meters. Yeung pulled double duty for the Aces, earning a 16th-place finish in the men's long jump with a distance of 5.07 meters.
A full slate of events for the Aces began on Saturday morning with the men's and women's shot put. Freshman Brittany Corley was the lone Aces in the women's shot put, finishing in 31st with a distance of 8.64 meters. Three Aces competed in the men's shot put, led by junior Ryan Freeman who broke a 32-year old record with a throw of 12.62 meters, besting Tim Blocker's record by .36 meters, earning a 16th-place finish. Senior Clay Doty (21st) and sophomore Chris Zapata (22nd) both grabbed impressive finishes with Doty besting Zapata by just .25 meters.
Next up for Evansville were the men's and women's 60-meter dash where the Aces had one sprinter in each competition. In the women's 60-meter dash, freshman Nikki Hutchcraft crossed the line in 30th breaking her own program record with a time of 8.23 seconds. On the men's side, freshman Aaron Straight finished in 11.48 seconds in 35th.
Some of the most impressive performances of the weekend came in the men's and women's mile run. On the women's side, freshman Anna Lowry shattered the Aces' program record by nearly 35 seconds while capturing a 25th-place finish in the 50 runner field. The Aces men's team was led by freshman Ricky Hendrix (4:39.77) in 34th while fellow freshmen Tyler Frields-Reifsteck (4:45.96), Timmy Miller (4:58.88), and Grant Mangan (5:24.77) finished in 37th, 42nd, and 46th, respectively.
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Final Meet Results
Following the mile run it was back to sprints as freshman Samantha Bittner competed in the women's 60-meter hurdles. In the event, Bittner crossed the line in 16th with a time of 10.28.
In the women's 400 meter run, five Aces competed led by senior Tess Hupe who finished in 24th with a time of 1:05.44. Less than a second behind Hupe was Walston in a time of 1:06.00 in 25th. Wrapping-up the Aces competitors in the 400 meters were freshman Kylie Hasenour (1:06.80), senior JBess Ruby (1:08.94), and freshman Sarah Poltrack (1:14.11) in 28th, 29th, and 31st, respectively. The men's 400 meter run featured one Ace in senior Everett Plocek who finished in 23rd with with a time of 55.30.
Records continued to fall in the women's 800 meters where junior Sienna Crews topped Lowry's program record set a week ago. Crews finished the race in 11th with a time of 2:25.99, besting Lowry's record by just over six seconds. Also competing in the 800 meters were freshman Lauren Meyer (2:33.31) in 24th, freshman Izzy Dawson (2:37.12) in 30th, and freshman Lexi Sutherland (2:50.25) in 34th.
Freshman Stanley Chepchieng paced the Aces in the men's 800 meter run as Chepchieng earned a ninth-place finish with a time of 2:01.22. Following Chepchieng was fellow freshman Tucker Dawson in 18th in a time of 2:10.62 while freshman Jonathan Newby crossed the finish line in 21st with a time of 2:27.60.
The Aces stayed together in a pack in the women's 200 meters as three Evansville athletes crossed the line one after another. UE was led by Tess Hupe who broke an Aces' record with a time of 29.69 in 34th. Hupe was followed by JBess Ruby (30.20) in 35th and junior Taylor Williams (36.74) in 36th.
In the longest event of the day, Evansville found success in the men's 3000 meters. Freshman Ethan Price finished in 14th just over 10 seconds off of the program record in a time of 9:07.38. Fellow freshman Dawson Hood earned a 28th-place finish with a time of 9:52.22 while freshman Kalen Ochs crossed the line in 29th just three seconds behind Hood in a time of 9:55.91.
As the afternoon waned to a close, the invitational concluded with the men's and women's 4x400 meter relays. On the women's side, the Aces relay team comprised of Lizzy Walston, Lauren Meyer, Sienna Crews, and Anna Lowry finished 12th in a time of 4:25.04, defeating "B" teams from Austin Peay, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Lipscomb, and Murray State and Lipscomb's "C" team. The Aces' men's 4x400 relay "A" team featuring Stanley Chepchieng, Ethan Price, Everett Plocek, and Ian Alberts earned a ninth-place finish with a time of 3:36.00, just over a second off Evansville's program record of 3:34.35 set in 1983. The Aces "B" team of Tucker Dawson, Tyler Frields-Reifsteck, Jonathan Newby, and Kevin Yeung came in 11th in a time of 4:02.70.
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