NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State men's and women's track and field teams split this week, as nine student-athletes travel to Charlottesville, Virginia to compete in the Virginia Challenge and the rest of the squad competes at University of Illinois in the Illinois Twilight meet.
At the Virginia Challenge, student-athletes will compete in a two-day meet on Friday and Saturday. The Illinois Twilight is slated to begin at noon with the women's hammer throw, and running events are set to start at 5 p.m.
The nine student-athletes that will be competing in Virginia include Emily Clay, Morgan Keller, JD LaFayette, Amanda McClain, Kelly McShea, Kyle Mattes, Tyler Morse, Ryan Rutherford and Brandy Thomas.
The Missouri Valley Conference women's pole vault champion, Clay will compete in pole vault and look for a regional qualifying mark. She captured her outdoor-season best mark at the Gibson Invitational (April 10) with a height of 3.81m (12-06). Clay's mark is ranked fifth in the Valley.
Also competing in the field are Keller and Thomas. Both of the women throwers will compete in the shot put, while Keller will also compete in the discus throw. Keller and Thomas are ranked sixth and seventh in the shot put on the Missouri Valley leaderboard, respectively.
McClain looks to make her mark in the women's long jump and the women's 400-meter dash at the Virginia Challenge. She won the long jump at the 2016 Indoor Missouri Valley Conference Championships this past February. McClain earned her outdoor-season best mark at the Redbird Invite last week with a leap of 5.85m (19-02.50), which is ranked third in the Valley.
McShea will compete in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 1,500-meter run. She last competed in the steeple at the Stanford Invite (April 2) where she posted her personal-best time of 10:09.56. Her time still leads the Valley and is ranked eighth in the west region. She also owns the No.16 spot on the national qualifying list. Last week, McShea ran in her first 1,500-meter run of the season and posted her personal-best time of 4:27.27, which is ranked third in the Valley. She looks to post a qualifying standings mark in the 1,500 at Virginia.
For the men, Rutherford will run in his season-debut of the 5,000-meter run. The senior owns the school record in the 5K with a time of 13:49.99. He looks to improve his time at the Virginia Challenge this week.
In the men's 10,000-meter run, Morse and Mattes will represent the Redbirds at the Virginia Challenge. This weekend will be the first time Morse and Mattes will compete in the 10K this season. In 2015, Morse placed in the 10K at the Outdoor Conference Championships.
At the Illinois Twilight meet, ISU's relay squads will look to post marks that will qualify for the NCAA West Regional Preliminary Round. To qualify for the NCAA West Regional Preliminary Round, student-athletes need to rank in the top 48 marks on the west regional leaderboard, and rank in the top-24 for relay teams.
Last weekend the men's 4x100-meter relay team of Dion Hooker, Jalen Lewis, Anderson Devonish and Shandall Thomas posted a mark of 40.48, which is second in the Valley and the third fastest time in school history. The squads looks to improve their time this week.
The MVC 4x400-meter relay champions and school-record holders, Ally Christiani, McClain, Ashleigh Wilson and Sarah Mussallem look to earn their spot on the west regional qualifying list. Last week, the squad posted their season-best time of 3:43.16 at the Redbird Invite, which is ranked second in the Valley.
Fans can follow the action on Twitter @Redbird_TrackXC, or go to www.GoRedbirds.com at the conclusion of the meets.
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