ST. LOUIS – Seniors Grace Beattie and Jack Anstey swept the Missouri Valley Conference Track Athlete of the Week honors after they both ran a top-10 time in the nation at the Joe Walker Invitational last weekend.
For the second-straight week, Beattie ran the second-fastest time in school history, running a 17-second personal-best time to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase and set a new facility record at the Ole Miss Outdoor Track. Beattie's time of 10:02.73 is No. 1 in the Valley by over 42 seconds, No. 2 in Illinois State track & field history, No. 5 in the NCAA West Region and No. 8 in the nation. The only Redbird with a faster steeplechase time than Beattie is Olympian and current pro-athlete Aisha Praught-Leer.
Last week, Beattie broke the facility record in the 5,000-meter run at the Redbird Outdoor Track & Field Complex, running an NCAA West Preliminary Round qualifying time of 16:06.28, which also is the No. 1 time in the Valley and the No. 2 time in school history.
This is Beattie's second-straight MVC Female Track Athlete of the Week honor and the sixth overall during her career.
Anstey took down three records – the ISU school record, the Missouri Valley Conference record and the Ole Miss Track facility record – with his personal-best time of 3:39.17 in the 1,500-meter run this weekend at the Joe Walker Invite. He has now broken the 1,500-meter school record three times, twice just this season.
With that time, Anstey leads the MVC by over eight seconds and broke the Valley record in the 1,500m for the second time this year. In a deep field where the top-eight finishers all ran sub-3:40 and broke the Ole Miss Track facility record, Anstey placed eighth overall and was the top finisher from the NCAA West Region in the 1,500m. Anstey's time is currently the third-fastest in NCAA West Region and the 10th-fastest in the NCAA.
This is the first MVC Male Track Athlete of the Week honor for Anstey in the 2021 season and the ninth time overall that he's received the recognition.
UP NEXT
The full Illinois State track & field squad will return to action at the Drake Relays (April 22-24) and at Louisville's Lenny Lyles-Clark Wood Invitational (April 23-24) next weekend.
For all the latest news on Redbird track & field and cross country, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
