Feb. 10, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State track and field teams will travel to Ames, Iowa, to compete in the Iowa State Classic beginning Friday and running through Saturday at the Lied Recreational Center.
"This weekend is going to be a weekend where we look at our student-athletes in regards of making sure we are getting prepared for the conference championships which are coming up in a couple of weeks," said head track and field coach Elvis Forde. "It will be the biggest test for us so far this season in all of the events, and we are looking forward to our student-athletes being able to measure themselves against our opponents. We need to be ready and give it our best effort on a weekend like this to showcase our ability."
The first day of competition at the Iowa State Classic will start at noon on Friday, Feb. 11, with the women's weight throw followed by the women's pole vault. The meet will resume on Saturday morning with action beginning at 9 a.m. with the mile run.
Last weekend, the Redbirds split into two teams to compete at the 24th-annual Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame and the Keck Invitational, which was hosted by Illinois Wesleyan.
At the Keck Invitational, Brittany Smith set another school record in the weight throw. Smith won the weight throw with a heave of 65-01.50. The sophomore thrower previously broke the record earlier this season at the Indiana State Dual (Jan. 15) with a throw of 64-02.25. Smith also won the shot put (52-6.75) during the invitational.
On the track, the Redbird women controlled the 400-meter dash, as Marissa Rader (1:00.27), Becky Anderson (1:00.80) and Laila Jason (1:01.73) ended the race in second through fourth places, respectively.
On the men's side, Antoine Curry won the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.51, while Yosef Tewolde bested the 800-meter field and finished the race in 1:56.29. The men's hurdles team controlled the 55-meter hurdles, as three Redbirds finished in the top-five. Kendric Smith (7.63), Lechein Neblett (7.71) and Alex Forde (7.73) finished the race in second, third and fifth places, respectively.
At the Meyo Invitational, in the seeded events, Sade Sealy finished eighth in the 400-meter dash with a mark of 56.50. For the men, Fabian Norgrove took sixth in the 400-meter dash after crossing the finish line in 48.22, while Mat Smoody was 14th in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.81.
In the unseeded events, Aisha Praught won the unseeded mile with a time of 4:53.14, while Kayode Adegoke took second in the unseeded 200-meter dash after crossing the finish line in 22.07. Nick Geyer also grabbed a top-10 finish in the unseeded 800-meter run, as he ran to a ninth-place finish with a time of 1:53.87.
"The meet has always been made up of a high caliber, and we are going to have to be ready to compete," said Forde. "This will be a great weekend to post some strong marks."
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