EVANSVILLE, Ind. -Â The University of Evansville men’s and women’s track and field teams took to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa for the opening day of the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. On an opening day, the Aces got to work and set four program records, narrowly missing another.
In the distance medley relay, Evansville’s women utilized a fast field to shatter the program record by nearly 40 seconds as junior Sienna Crews, senior Tess Hupe, and freshmen Lauren Meyer and Anna Lowry captured a 10th-place finish in a time of 13:31.79.
The men’s distance relay team comprised of freshmen Stanley Chepchieng, Ian Alberts, Ricky Hendrix, and Eithan Price narrowly missed making it a program record breaking sweep in the DMR. The Aces finished the relay in 10th in a time of 10:54.11, less than four seconds off the program record of 10:50.82 set in 1982.
Moving to field events, freshman Kylie Hasenour was the lone Ace to compete in the women’s long jump, finishing 24th with a distance of 3.45 meters.The men’s long jump featured a pair of Evansville freshman in Stanley Chepchieng and Kevin Yeung. Chepchieng led the Aces’ contingent with a jump of 6.11 meters, good enough for a 19th-place finish, while Yeung jumped 5.80 meters to finish 20th.
In the weight throw, the Aces’ women’s team was represented by freshman Brittany Corley, who earned a 19th-place finish with a throw of 9.41 meters. For the Aces’ men, junior Ryan Freeman recorded a throw of 11.08 meters, finishing in 18th.
Among action in preliminary races, the day was highlighted by a number of record-setting performances. In the women’s 400 meter dash, freshman Lizzy Walston broke teammate Tess Hupe’s program record as Walston finished in 21st with a time of 1:03.58. In the women’s 60-meter hurdles, freshman Samantha Bittner improved on her own program record by nearly a full second, crossing the line in a time of 9.83 in 16th. Another Ace who broke their own program record was freshman Aaron Straight. In the men’s 200-meter dash, Straight finished in a program-record time of 24.75 in 24th-place.
