Redbirds Punch Tickets To Sunday Final Races At MVC Championship

NORMAL, Ill. – After a long day of competition Friday, the Illinois State men's and women's track and field teams got back to work early Saturday on day two of the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.  As was the case Friday, ISU's Jianna Williams earned All-MVC honors in the throws and several Redbirds qualified for finals races set for Sunday at the Redbird Track and Field Complex.

After two days of competition, the Redbird women sit in fifth place with 24 points, just three points behind Northern Iowa in fourth.  The men's team is in sixth place currently, with several strong opportunities for points to be scored waiting on Sunday.

Weather played a factor with several delays Saturday, however the day was completed and Sunday's schedule was adjusted to account for more potential weather in the forecast.  The men's pole vault will start one hour earlier at 10 a.m., with all other events moved up two hours on the schedule.  The running events will begin at 11:30 a.m. with the women's 4x100-meter relay final and the meet is scheduled to wrap up at 2:55 p.m., with the specialty and team award presentations. 

Women's Field
Jianna Williams added her second All-Valley honor of the weekend, with a third-place finish in the shot put competition with a toss of 53-07.00. Fellow thrower Morgan Keller posted a new personal-best effort at 50-01.75 to finish sixth overall and give the Redbirds two a total of nine points in the event. In the finals of the long jump competition, Patrice Jones finished eighth overall with a leap of 18-07.25.  

Men's Field
In the second day of the decathlon competition, Kevin Fisch used second-place finishes in the discus (122-07) and pole vault (14-04.75) to finish the 10-event competition in seventh place overall with 6,169 points.  Bastian Hauk-Jegen had to wait until Saturday to finish up the javelin competition that was suspended from Friday and went on to finish sixth place with a throw of 184-03.  In other finals action, Logan Zeman placed ninth in the high jump with a leap of 6-02.00 and Evan Garretson was tenth in the shot put with a heave of 50-04.75.

Women's Track
Ariel Michalek was the only Redbird to run in a final on Saturday in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, as she finished in seventh overall in a time of 11:49.12.  Sarah Mussallem qualified for the 400-meter dash final on Sunday with a qualifying time of 54.88 and Jalynn Roberts-Lewis qualified in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.91.  Jackie Mink also qualified for the finals in the 800-meter run with qualifying effort of 2:11.74.
 
Men's Track
Anderson Devonish qualified for the finals with top qualifying time in the 400-meter in 47.52, and will now compete for titles in the 200 and 400-meter dashes on Sunday.  He will be joined in the 400-meter final by teammates CJ Hamilton (48.25) and Antonio Farley (48.47) and that trio will also run in the finals of the 4x400 meter relay.  Raimon Clay also secured his spot in the 100-meter final with a time of 10.81 and a pair of Redbirds qualified for the 800-meter final, as JD LaFayette (1:52.47) and Kyle Hatton (1:53.41) each ran well in their respective heats to run for All-Valley honors on Sunday.  Jalen Lewis (53.61) secured a personal-best and Javar Cruz (53.37) each qualified for the 400-meter hurdles and Dave Eckhart was the lone Redbird to place in a final with his time of 9:24.83 to finish sixth in the steeplechase.

GoRedbirds.com:  Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.