NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State track & field team will split up this weekend with student-athletes competing at three different meets in three different states on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22.
On Friday, Feb. 21, a group of Redbirds will compete in Charleston, Illinois at the EIU Friday Night Special for a pre-conference tune-up and Jack Anstey will run the mile at the Last Chance College Elite Meet in Seattle, Washington where he will look to run a qualifying time for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The next day two distance runners and three pole vaulters will compete at Notre Dame's Alex Wilson Invitational.
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
The Redbirds are sending a student-athlete to the Last Chance College Elite Meet for the first time where Anstey will face some of the nation's best competition as he vies for one of the top-16 times in the country to qualify for nationals. Should Anstey achieve a qualifying time, it will be the first time in his career that he will compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Currently, Anstey has a season-best time of 4:02.49 and a career-best time of 3:59.66, which is the second-fastest mile time in Illinois State track & field history. Anstey will need to run a lifetime best time in order to qualify with the No. 16 spot currently at 3:58.62.
USTFCCCA EVENT SQUAD TOP-25
Illinois State has five different event groups in this week's USTFCCCA event squad top-25, including four on the women's side and one on the men's side.
The women's high jump continues to impress as it has all season long, ranking ninth in the nation. Led by Kameesha Smith (1.78 meters), the Redbirds have three high jumpers clearing at least 1.70 meters.
Breaking the top-15 in the women's event squad rankings are the Redbirds' weight throw and pentathlon groups. In the weight throw, Sydney Laufenberg leads the group with the third-best mark in Illinois State track & field history at 19.13 meters (62-09.25). While Laufenberg is the only ISU thrower with a mark above 19 meters, Tayler Weaver and Faith Ayodele both have posted marks above 18 meters.
The multi-event group, which is ranked 14th in the USTFCCCA event squad rankings, is led by Jordyn Bruce's 3,638 points. Bruce currently leads the Valley in the pentathlon and sits No. 4 on the ISU indoor top-10 list.
Wrapping up the top-25 for the Redbird women is the 800-meter group, who moved up 49 spots to No. 21 after three student-athletes posted personal-best times at the Iowa State Classic. Rachel Hickey (2:08.58), Audrey Harrod (2:12.41) and Maddi Exline (2:13.09) ran their best 800s to date to improve the group's average to 2:10.56. Two of the four 800 runners rank in the top-four in Illinois State track & field history, led by Hattie Plumb's time of 2:08.15 (No. 2) and followed by Hickey's 2:08.58 (No. 4). Harrod nearly broke into the top-10 with her current time just .23 out of the tenth spot.
On the men's side, the pole vault group ranks 20th and is led by Eddie Winner and Kellen Kravik, who are the only two pole vaulters in the Valley to have cleared at least five meters. The 'Birds moved up one spot from the previous week after two student-athletes posted season bests and one with a personal-best. Both Kravik (5.01 meters) and Sam Peschke (4.71 meters) had season-best performances at the Iowa State Classic and Max Schweitzer recorded the best clearance of his Redbird career (4.71 meters).
PREVIEWING THE VALLEY INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Redbirds' sweep of the Valley team titles in 2018 and 2019 marked the first time in program history that Illinois State recorded a back-to-back sweep. The 'Birds will look to continue making history this season as they go for their third-straight team title sweep at the MVC Indoor Championships next weekend.
If both Illinois State teams take home Valley indoor titles next week, it will mark the first time in MVC history that a program has swept the team titles three years in a row. A victory at the MVC Championships would give each team its 12th indoor conference title overall.
Currently, USTFCCCA has the Redbird women picked to finish first, while the men are currently picked second, despite both teams being selected to finish first in the MVC indoor pre-season poll.
The 'Birds will look to their six returning MVC indoor individual champions and their 16 returning All-Valley returners to lead the way as they go for their third-straight sweep of the conference titles.
MVC ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Dec. 10 – Jack Anstey, Track
Dec. 10 – Tori Ortiz, Track
Jan. 21 – Kristin Higgins, Field
Jan. 28 – Kameesha Smith, Field
Jan. 28 – Caleb Miedema, Field
Feb. 4 – Grace Beattie, Track
Feb. 11 – Eddie Winner, Field
Feb. 18 – Kameesha Smith, Field
HOW TO FOLLOW
Live results for the EIU Friday Night Special can be found here. Anstey's mile race at the Last Chance College Elite Meet can be watched here via a paid subscription or can be followed via live results here. On Saturday, the results from the Alex Wilson Invitational will be posted live here. Fans can also follow @redbird_trackxc on Twitter for updates.
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