BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The University of Evansville track and field team rounded out the calendar year at the Indiana Early Bird meet up I-69.

Sophomore sprinters Taylor Johnson (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) and Raymond Felton III (Houston / Clear Brook HS) set three program records in the Purple Aces final meet of the calendar year. Both the men's and women's 200-meter records were reset along with the women's 400-meter record. Overall UE competed in 16 events with two podium finishes.

"Today was a great day filled with broken records and great memories made," said Head Coach Dylan Anderson. "It's a privilege to have extra opportunities to compete, and everyone we brought competed at such a high level and with purpose. We're going into winter break feeling really good about ourselves, and we're excited to see what the new year brings us."

SPRINTS
Evansville's first sprint event of the night was the men's 60 meter dash. Felton II had the Aces fastest time in the event at 6.98 seconds to just fall short of the finals by six hundredths of a second. Also finishing in the 60-meter dash for UE was sophomore Connor Shin (Bloomington, Ind. / Bloomington North HS) at 7.13 seconds and freshman Myles Terry (Evansville, Ind. / North HS) at 7.18 seconds.

Johnson set her first program record of the meet in the 400-meter dash. Placing fourth in the event, Johnson ran the 400 in 57.32 second beating her program record from the year prior by just under half a second. Sophomore Chase Hayes (Noblesville, Ind. / Western HS) had the next finish for Evansville in the 300-meter dash placing seventh with a time of 43.17 seconds.

The Aces sprinters wrapped up the Indiana Early Bird meet with the women and men's 200-meter dash. Johnson earned her second program record in the 200 race with a time of 25.28 seconds for another fourth-place finish. In the men's 200-meter dash Felton earned a third-place podium finish along with setting a new program record at 21.84 seconds. Terry and Shin also placed in the 200 dash with times of 22.28 seconds and 22.66 seconds for sixth and 13^th place respectively.

MID-DISTANCE & DISTANCE
UE's time on the track began with the distance 5,000-meter runs. Sophomore Samuel Lea (Worchester, England) took first on the men's side with a time of 14:55.71 in his first indoor race of the season. While sophomore Avery Stephens (Newburg, Ind. / Castle HS) placed fourth in the women's race with a time of 18:32.92.

On the mid-distance side in the 600-meter women's race Hayes placed eighth in the final with a time of 1:42.83. Sophomore Woody Burrell (Cedarburg, Wis. / Cedarburg HS) earned two points for Evansville in the men's mile race with a time of 4:29.68 in the finals. While in the men's 800-meter race senior Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS) placed fourth with a time of 1:55.87. Freshman Kadin McAllister (Lilburn, Ga. / Parkview HS) ran his first 800 race in Bloomington finishing the event in 2:04.41.

FIELD
The Aces competed in two field events at the Indiana Early Bird. Junior thrower Gwen Darrah (Cleveland / Orange HS) competed in the women's weight throw to begin the field events on Friday. Darrah's longest throw was 13.18 meters at Gladstein Fieldhouse. UE's other thrower freshman Emma Bertel (Franklin, Ind. / Franklin Community HS) just missed the finals in the women's shot put with a throw of 10.82 meters.

UP NEXT
After the holiday break Evansville will return to action in the Crossroads of America Invitational. Hosted by the Indiana State Fairgrounds the Crossroads of America is in its second year at the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion. The meet will run from Friday January 24^th through the 25^th.