Jan. 22, 2011

Complete Results

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville men's and women's track and field teams continue to improve early in the indoor season with a strong day at the Illini Classic Saturday from the UI Armory.

"We had some good things happen today and they didn't all show in the results," said SIUE Head Coach Kareem Jackson. "We are just trying to get quality attempts and are not focusing on what place we finish in each event."

One of these came from sophomore Aaron Werths who tied a personal record in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9 minutes, 8 seconds.

Freshman Emily Conlon also turned in a personal-best time in the 3,000m on the women's side finishing in 11:00.06.

Fellow freshman Renee Goodenough ran one of track's most difficult pair of events in the mile and 800m and had good results in each race with times of 5:43.29 and 2:34.57, respectively.

"The distance runners performed very well today," said Assistant Coach Eileen McAllister. "They continue to show improvement in their events."

Senior Ben Bishop had a solid finish in the weight throw with a third-place toss of 19.99 meters to lead the Cougar throwers.

Another thrower with a great performance was freshman Jamil Mashni. Mashni's 14.55-meter throw in the shot put was nearly a meter farther than his best at the Missouri Invite, and good enough for fifth place.

As a team, the men finished ahead of Loyola (Ill.) with 26 points while the women finished ahead of both Loyola (Ill.) and Bradley with 22 points.

"Today was about our young team getting more collegiate experience," added Jackson. "They were again exposed to excellent competition and can take that back to training. That experience will make a big difference in the remaining meets."

SIUE will make another trip to Champaign next Saturday for the Illinois Intercollegiate.

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