Austin’s 3k effort leads Eagles
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—University of Southern Indiana freshman Hadessah Austin turned heads Friday with a blistering effort in the 3,000 meters to lead USI Women’s Track & Field at the PNC Lenny Lyles Invite this weekend.
Austin set a USI freshman record with her second-place time of nine minutes, 40.99 seconds, putting her No. 3 on the Screaming Eagles’ all-time indoor 3,000-meter list and atop the Ohio Valley Conference performance list by nearly 19 seconds.
Her time broke Erika Wilson’s previous freshman mark of 10:01.88, which was set in 2011, and is a little more than 12 seconds off the all-time school record.
In additions to Austin, USI got a season and personal-best time of 4:56.36 out of senior Audrey Comastri in the mile. Comastri finished 11th in the event and catapulted up to No. 2 in the OVC.
Freshman Abrielle Richard also had a strong effort in the mile as she crossed the finish line in 5:01.45, which was just three seconds off the USI freshman record in that event.
Joining Austin with a strong effort in the 3,000 meters was sophomore Zoe Seward, who finished in 10:03.49 to move into third place on the OVC performance list.
Senior Katie Winkler also put herself in the top 10 of the OVC performance list as she finished the 5,000 meters in 18:19.10.
USI is set to compete in two meets next weekend, beginning with the Eastern Indoors Friday in Louisville and the Fairgrounds Invitational next Saturday in Indianapolis.
