Jan. 16, 2010
Results
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State indoor track & field teams renewed their annual rivalry with Missouri Valley Conference foe Indiana State Saturday, but the Redbirds fell a bit short and were defeated by the Sycamores at historic Horton Field House.
The Redbirds were back in action for the first time in over a month and kicked the indoor season into full gear with the traditional dual meet. On the men's side, Indiana State bested the Redbirds by a score of 88-60 but the women's score was much closer, as the Sycamores won by just six points over the Redbirds, 77.5-71.5.
"I cannot be disappointed in the effort that was given today," head coach Elvis Forde said. "The women's team is on the path that we expected and made the meet very interesting at the end with some stellar performances on the track. We had a lot of bumps and bruises on the men's side than we expected and those little things made a bit of a difference today. However, Indiana State was just better than us in a few events, especially the pole vault and the weight throw, which helped them beat us to the punch today."
Junior Meaka Brents was the star of the day for the Redbirds, as she helped the team earn fifteen points. She won the 60-meter dash with a personal-best time of 7.53 seconds and then won the 200-meter dash in 25.27 seconds. She also ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay team along with teammates junior Tia Harvey, sophomore Alia McAfee and freshman Sade Sealy that just edged out Indiana State with a time of 3:50.82 to cut the final margin to just six points.
Elsewhere on the track, Harvey finished second in the 60-meter with a time of 7.72 seconds and McAfee took second place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.65. Sealy set a personal-best with a time of 56.41 seconds to take first place in the 400-meter dash, followed closely by McAfee in second place in 57.50 seconds. In the distance events, junior Jess Husted finished second in the mile with a time of 5:04.31 and the trio of juniors Oliva Myers (10:21.62) and Kristen Lang (10:22.12) and freshman Samantha Bluske (10:28.27) swept the top three spots in the 3,000-meter run.
In the field, sophomore Tori Ziegler took the top spot in the women's shot put with a heave of 48'04.50" and freshman Brittany Smith finished second with a toss of 47'05.25" to give the Redbirds eight more points. Junior Amanda Albrecht finished second in the high jump with a leap of 5'04.25' and sophomore Rachelle Harbert tied for second place in the pole vault with a height of 10'10.00".
On the men's side, ISU picked up several points thanks to key performances in the distance events. Freshman Steve Regan won the mile run in 4:16.31 and junior Jon Roberts won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:32.67 to put 10 points on the scoreboard for the Redbirds. ISU also picked up a win in the final event of the day, as the team of juniors Tyler Perna, Yosef Tewolde, Dan Murphy and senior John Neisler raced to a first-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay in a time of 3:24.64.
In other action on the track, Tewolde took second place in the 800-meter run in 1:57.90 and the duo of freshman Kyle Hunn-Andreae (25.36) and Perna (23.82) took second and third places, respectively, in the 200-meter dash.
In the field events, junior Alex Forde (8.47) and sophomore Josh Pope (8.50) took second and third places, respectively, in the 60-meter hurdles and junior Drew Holl placed second in the high jump with a leap of 6'08.25". Sophomore Tyler Knight picked up a pair of second-place finishes in the long jump (21'04.00") and triple jump (46'07.25") and junior Colin Fane was second in the shot put with a heave of 49'08.50".
"Overall, finishing up with wins in the relays like we did is always a positive," Forde said. "It shows that the kids are into the meet the whole way and are still excited all the way to the end. That is something to build on here in the next few weeks and we continue to work and build toward the conference championships in February."
The Redbirds return to action Jan. 29-30, when they travel to Bloomington, Ind., to compete in the Indiana Relays. Action will begin Friday, Jan. 29, at 3 p.m. at Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse and will wrap up with action beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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