NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State senior distance runner Grace Beattie shattered the Redbird Outdoor Track & Field Complex facility record, winning the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:06.28 on Friday afternoon at the Redbird Invite.
Beattie, whose time just missed Wendy Van Mierlo's 1983 school record of 16:06.05, ran the fastest 5,000-meter time of her career, improving her previous best by 29 seconds. With that time, she broke the Tonya Nero's previous facility record (16:46.47) by 40 seconds and became the No. 2 5,000-meter runner in school history. She is only the second Redbird to ever run a sub-16:10 5K and currently ranks No. 1 in the Missouri Valley Conference, No. 2 in the NCAA West Region and No. 11 overall in the NCAA.
Eight other Redbirds joined Beattie in posting Illinois State top-10 performances, including six student-athletes who were not previously ranked. The hurdle trio of Mya Robinson, Brandon Ratliff and Jaden Johnson all ran top-10 times in school history today.
Robinson, who had not previously run sub-14 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, placed second overall and ran the fifth-fastest time in school history with a time of 13.92 seconds. The men's sophomore hurdle duo placed second and third overall in the 110-meter hurdles with Ratliff just edging Johnson for second place. Ratliff's time of 14.35 seconds ranks sixth overall in school history, while Johnson's time is the seventh-fastest at 14.46 seconds.
In the sprint events, freshman Seven Hicks continues to make huge contributions for the Redbirds, placing second overall in the 100-meter dash and running the ninth-fastest time in school history at 11.77 seconds.
The 'Birds had four field event athletes record top-10 marks in school history, including two freshmen throwers. Macy Byer launched a huge personal-best throw and the eighth-best throw in ISU history in the discus, placing second overall with her mark of 49.29 meters (161-8 ft.). In the shot put, Mye'Joi Williams added her name to the history books after making her mark during the indoor campaign. She finished second overall with an outdoor personal-best of 14.66 meters (48-1.25 ft.). Her mark is the 10th-best in school history.
Pole vaulter Nicole Bagwell and high jumper Grace Daun each secured wins, and both notched an outdoor personal best in their respective events to move them up the top-10 list. Bagwell distanced herself even further from the No. 6 spot, improving her No. 5 spot with a clearance of 3.82 meters (12-6.25 ft.). Entering the outdoor top-10 list for the first time in the high jump, Daun won a jump off, clearing 1.73 meters (5-8 ft.) to get the win and the No. 10 spot in school history.
Both the men's and women's squads ended the day victorious with the men's team totaling 235 points and the women's team finishing with 287.5 points.
QUOTES
Director of Track & Field/Cross Country, Jeff Bovee
On the overall team performance:
"I definitely feel like last week was a rust buster for the team, going to our first outdoor meet in two years. With COVID, we have two groups that are freshmen, so we have a lot of inexperience in the outdoor collegiate scene. I thought today was definitely an improvement from what we saw last week. I think being at home in a comfortable surrounding and having one meet under our belt was definitely beneficial. We had a lot of young people have a wonderful day today – Macy Byer in the discus, the hurdlers on the men's side with both of them being freshmen outdoors as well. We had a lot of wins, a lot of 1-2, 1-2-3 finishes across the board, on the track and in the field. I really felt good about our balance that we're seeing out there right now. We had so many people that had personal bests today that it's so hard to mention them all, maybe close to 20 PRs in all different areas."
On Grace Beattie's performance:
"I was really happy to see how well Grace Beattie did, just barely missing that school record. She had just a tremendous effort all by herself. I'm really proud of her and she's going to have an outstanding season ahead of her."
Senior distance runner, Grace Beattie
"Today went exactly how I wanted it to go in terms of me running by myself in the front and just really focusing on myself and staying in tune with what my coaches were telling me. I really needed today after coming off a really rough ending to my cross country season. My performance today is really getting me motivated for steeplechase next week and telling me that I belong. It was cool to get a possible regional mark in the first race of the season, solo and in the wind, and that definitely gave me some confidence."
REDBIRD EVENT WINS
Logan Calvin – hammer throw
Julia Bourke – hammer throw
Logan Calvin – discus
Sydney Laufenberg – discus
Logan Calvin – shot put
Tayler Weaver – shot put
Zach Fiser – javelin
Nicole Bagwell – pole vault
Kellen Kravik – pole vault
Grace Daun – high jump
Jordyn Bruce – 400mH
Jack Anstey – 800m
Rachel Hickey – 800m
Jake Gillum – 1,500m
Maddi Exline – 1,500m
Grace Beattie – 5,000m
Women's 4x100m relay
Women's 4x400m relay
Men's 4x400m relay
UP NEXT
The Redbirds will return to Ole Miss for the Joe Walker Invite on April 9-10.
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