April 23, 2011

Complete Results

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Despite volatile weather at Korte Stadium, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville men's track and field team won six events at the Twilight Invitational.

The day opened with a rain delay and ended with a lightning delay that lengthened the men's hammer throw event. The men's events concluded just before 7 p.m. with a good day for Cougar track and field.

"Today was a tremendous group effort from start to finish," said SIUE Head Coach Kareem Jackson. "Nobody lost their focus which is something you worry about when you have breaks in track meets."

Ben Bishop had the longest to wait for his victory. After a lightning delay, he won the hammer throw with a winning toss of 221 feet, 4 inches. That broke his own school record.

SIUE's focus was evident in the hurdles events.

William Lindsey swept the 110-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles. He ran the 110 in 14.46 seconds and was victorious at 400 in 51.86. The 400-meter victory was just .01 away from equaling the school record set by Jonathan Bannister during the 2005 season.

Lindsey's teammate made it a 1-2-3 finish in both events. Forrest Knight was the runner-up in both events, running the 110-meter hurdles in 15.40 and the 400-meter hurdles in 53.99. Jerraco Johnson placed third in the 110 at 15.62. Josh Thomas took third at 400 at 54.23.

Braxton Klavins ran away with the 400-meter title. His winning time was 48.67.

Marc Presley joined Lindsey, Knight and Klavins for the winning mark at the 1,600-meter relay. The foursome won by nearly five seconds in a time of 3:13.67.

Freshman Jamil Mashni cruised to victory in the shot put. His winning toss of 51-9 was more than seven feet better than runner-up Andrew Petro of Illinois Wesleyan.

"We're getting closer to the team we want to be," Jackson said. "I'm really proud of how focused this group was."

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