LINCOLN, Neb. – The Illinois State track & field teams tied for second at the Adidas Classic hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Saturday afternoon inside the Devaney Sports Center behind five individual event wins.
The women's team posted four individual event wins in route to their second place (tie) team finish, while the men had one individual event win.
"We always just try to focus on getting better every meet and I feel like we made progress on that today," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country, Jeff Bovee.
Junior Mya Robinson posted a personal-best time of 8.57 seconds to win the 60-meter hurdles and moved up to fourth all-time on the ISU indoor top-10 list. Following her win in the hurdles, Robinson went on to compete in the 60-meter dash finals where she recorded her first sub-eight second time, clocking in at 7.89 seconds.
In her first meet of the season, sophomore Destiny White won the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.23 seconds in addition to anchoring the 4x400-meter relay team.
Winning her second-straight meet, junior Kameesha Smith cleared 1.74 meters (5-08.5 ft.) to win the only field event of the day for the Redbirds.
Senior Grace Beattie and junior Jake Gillum highlighted the day with a sweep in the mile. Both runners led their races from start to finish with Beattie finishing with a time of 4:52.32 and Gillum clocking in at a two-second personal-best of 4:13.43.
In addition to the five individual wins, the Redbirds had several personal-bests times/marks and had multiple student-athletes break into the ISU indoor top-10 list.
Three Illinois State hurdlers moved up the top-10 list. Robinson, who now sits in fourth in ISU track & field history moved up three spots today with her personal-best time. Following her performance in the women's race, the freshmen trio of JT Lowder, Brandon Ratliff and Jaden Johnson all either tied or broke their previous best times.
"The three men's hurdlers all being freshmen and ranking in the top-10 all-time is phenomenal," Bovee said.
Lowder cut his time down from 8.22 to 8.12 moving him from eighth into sole possession of the No. 5 spot in the ISU record books. He finished fourth overall at today's meet. After recording a personal-best time of 8.18 seconds at last week's Notre Dame Invite, Ratliff showed consistency and matched that time today. However, because of Lowder's PR in the hurdles, Ratliff moved down to the No. 6 spot in ISU history.
One of six hurdlers to record a new PR today, Johnson maintained his position in the No. 10 spot with a personal-best time of 8.28 seconds. Senior Whitney Ward and freshman Danielle Taets were the final two hurdlers to notch new personal-best times, clocking in at 9.12 seconds and 9.23 seconds, respectively.
The final runner to move up a top-10 list was redshirt-sophomore Audrey Harrod. Harrod's performance in the 600-meter was not only a two-second personal-best time, but also moved her into the No. 4 spot in ISU track & field history after not previously being ranking among the top-10. She finished second overall with a time of 1:33.58.
On the field side, senior Tayler Weaver posted a personal-best mark in the weight throw for the third-straight meet. She finished second overall with a best throw of 18.83 meters (61-09.5).
UP NEXT
The Redbirds return to South Bend, Indiana for the second of three meets at Notre Dame this season. Illinois State will compete in the Meyo Invite at the Loftus Sports Center on Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 8 8 with events beginning at 10 a.m. (ET) on that Friday.
