The Purple Aces will have seven runners competing on the second day of the PNC Lenny Lyles Invitational hosted by the Louisville Cardinals at the Norton Sports and Learning Center. UE will have two runners competing in the 400-meter race and the 5000-meter race while three runners are competing in the mile race. The entire Evansville team will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 2 at the PNC Bank Bellarmine Classic.
At the Lenny Lyles Invitational, the Aces will compete against runners from 24 other schools across multiple divisions. No other Missouri Valley Conference schools are participating in the meet, but UE will still see some familiar faces in Purdue, Bellarmine, Louisville, Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, and Division II Vincennes. Evansville’s day in Louisville will begin with the 400-meter races at 10:15 a.m. followed by the mile races and wrapping up with the 5000-meter races at 12:15 and 12:55 p.m.
Last weekend at the Indiana Invitational, the Aces broke seven program records while having two podium finishes. Sprinters Raymond Felton III (Houston / Clear Brook HS) and Taylor Johnson (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) placed second and third in the 200-meter sprint and the 400-meter race respectively with times of 21.89 and 57.80 seconds. Other program records broken last weekend included the men’s and women’s 600-meter race from Jakub Nowicki (Poznan, Poland) at 1:23.49 and Kalina Urbaniak (Suchy Las, Poland) at 1:36.95, the women’s weight throw by Gwen Darrah (Cleveland, Ohio / Orange HS) at 13.50 meters, the men’s shot put by Zach Dove (Princeton, Ind. / Princeton Community HS) with a throw of 15.53 meters and the men’s 4×400 meter relay with a time of 3:22.79.
