NASHVILLE, Tenn. – SIUE men's and women's track and field saw eleven student-athletes record top-five finishes in day one of the Vanderbilt Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee, and at the WashU Invite in St. Louis, Missouri.
"The athletes at Vanderbilt competed well despite less than ideal weather and did a nice job of rebounding if they had a rough first event," said McAllister. "It's a good start."
Highlighting the performances were Megan Lauzon, finishing in first place in the shot put with a personal best toss of 42 feet, 1.25 inches and Greg Block finishing second in the hammer with a heave of 187 feet, 0 inches. Block's mark is a personal best by 9 feet and is a new No. 3 SIUE all-time.
Four Cougars combined for six second-place finishes. Elizabeth Hampl finished in second in both the shot put (41-8.50) and the hammer throw (169-1.5). Greg Block added a second place in the shot put (50-9.25) to his second place hammer finish.
Luke Padesky recorded a personal best in the 10K at the WashU Invite, finishing second overall with a time of 31:11, narrowly missing the SIUE No. 3 all-time mark.
Ahmad Evans finished second in the 200 meters with a time of 21.62 seconds and was the first collegiate finisher in the race.
The women's 200-meter race saw Jessica Oranika and LaDonna Caston finish in the top-five. Running the race in 24.84 was Oranika, good enough for third. Caston came in fourth with a personal best time of 24.91.
Lizzie Virgl finished in fourth place in the hammer throw in her first collegiate outdoor meet with a toss of 152-3.75.
Other notable finishes for SIUE include a 25.14 200-meter race for Brittany Thomas, good enough for sixth place.
"All of our athletes in the 200 meters competed well. I was happy to see their results," said McAllister. "And that was a terrific debut by Lizzie in the hammer."
At the WashU Invite, Keith Meyer finished the men's 5k in a personal best 14:53.13, placing him 27th overall. Erin Kennedy ran her debut in the 10K, placing 20th with a time of 38:05.18.
"Erin continued her fantastic sophomore campaign," added McAllister. "She ran smart for her first 6.2 mile race. She negative split, dropping 20 seconds the second half of the race. I'm excited to see her improvement by the end of the season."
Haley Miller, the only SIUE female to run the women's 5K, finished the race in 18:48.18.
Clint Kliem and Ben Scamihorn also competed in the men's 5K, finishing in 15:00.95 and 15:27.81, respectively. Kliem recorded a personal best in the race while Scamihorn was running the event for the first time.
"Overall it was a solid start to the outdoor season. Now we have a point to work from and things to improve," said McAllister. "For the crew competing at Vanderbilt, it is important to see how they come back on day two. It looks promising."
The Cougars will continue action Saturday morning in the Vanderbilt Invitational beginning at 10am.
