AMES, Iowa – Sophomore Rachel Hickey was the third Redbird to move up the Illinois State indoor top-10 list this weekend, posting the No. 4 800-meter time in ISU history on day two of the Iowa State Classic.
Hickey, who ran a personal-best time of 2:08.58, was the top Illinois State finisher in the event and placed 12th overall after winning her heat by over a second. Currently, her time is the second-fastest in the Valley, behind teammate Hattie Plumb.
Four other Redbirds joined Hickey in running a personal-best in the 800 today. Audrey Harrod competed in her first 800 of the season and recorded a five-second improvement with a personal-best time of 2:12.41, just missing the ISU indoor top-10 list. Completing the trio of Redbird women with 800 PRs today was Maddi Exline, who ran an indoor best of 2:13.09.
On the men's side, Nick Swartzendruber (1:53.62) and Riley Wells (1:54.70) both made significant improvements to their 800 times with Swartzendruber shaving two seconds off of his indoor best and Wells dropping his time below 1:55 for the first time this season.
Outside of the 800m, Destiny Reid recorded a personal-best time of 25.68 seconds in the 200m and Kimathi Johnson ran a two-second improvement in the mile, clocking in at 4:12.19.
OTHER NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
- Nicole Bagwell, pole vault, 3.73 meters, season-best
- Whitney Ward, 200m, 25.51 seconds, season-best
- Devon Kelly, 200m, 22.75 seconds, season-best
- Jack Anstey, Mile, 4:02.49, season-best
- Women's 4x400 (Greci, Bruce, White, Ward), 2nd, 3:49.30
- Men's 4x400 (Larson, Kelly, Swartzendruber, Gage), 4th, 3:17.62, season-best
QUOTES FROM DIRECTOR OF TRACK & FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY, JEFF BOVEE
On the distance group's performance:
"Today was definitely highlighted by the performances in the 800-meters by both the genders. Maddi Exline kicked it off in heat one and the momentum just took over and everyone was trying to top the next. Rachel (Hickey) with a pacer setting the tone early and when that pacer stepped out, she just kept it rolling and ran her all-time best as well. On the men's side, same thing, everybody raising the bar for the next. We definitely hadn't run some of them in the open eight, so it was good to see some of them debut and others make improvements. We certainly needed to make a statement there in some of the middle-distance events. I was really proud of that group. Audrey Harrod has made tremendous improvements over the last year and to see Kimathi (Johnson) back after a fall last week. It was great to see him able to get back so quickly and get out and run his all-time best in the mile. I was really proud of Kevin Koski as well (yesterday). His hard work over a long stretch of time has really paid off for him, dropping 10 seconds in that 5K. I really feel like the distance and middle-distance runners made some positive progress this weekend."
On the consistency of the field and sprint events:
"I think some of the field events and sprinters are definitely showing a lot of consistency as well. We've got a few errors that we still need to clean up, in particular we need to get a little healthier. We've had a lot of sickness run through our team the last couple weeks. We need to get healthy as we head into the championships."
On Kameesha's performance in the high jump yesterday:
"Kameesha (Smith) had a fantastic high jump competition yesterday, just barely missing the bar that would probably send her to the NCAA meet, just clipping it with her ankle there. She'll get another good opportunity at the Valley meet. She's been hungry for that bar and I think she'll get it."
On Jack Anstey's performance in the mile:
"Jack (Anstey) had a good go at trying to break the four-minute mile today. There was a fantastic pacer up front that led the field evenly. Jack put himself in a position coming through two flat and three flat through the 800 and 1,200 meter marks. With a lap to go he got there in second place behind Kurgat, the NCAA cross country champion from Iowa State, and ran out of gas just a little bit late. Still trying to get that sharpness back for him, but he's definitely making very good progress, knocking off three seconds from his last race. We're going to give it another go next week."
On what's next for the Redbirds:
"We'll get out there next week at Eastern Illinois, Notre Dame and Washington. We'll be splitting our team up next week with some resting and some competing to try and earn a spot on the conference team or to increase confidence levels by bettering a mark to get us ready for the last part of the indoor season."
UP NEXT
The 'Birds will split up next weekend with student-athletes competing at the EIU Friday Night Special (Feb. 21), the Last Chance College Elite Meet at Washington (Feb. 21) and the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame (Feb. 22) next weekend.
