St.LOUIS, Mo. and TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Vincennes University Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams opened their 2025 Outdoor seasons this past weekend.
The Blazers split the weekend between competing at the WashU Distance Carnival in St. Louis and the Pacesetter Invitational hosted by Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
VU opened the weekend in St. Louis and freshman Anis Abdaoui (Kairouan, Tunisia) opened the Outdoor season with a bang, taking 10th place in the 1500 meters with a final time of 3:49.79, setting a new school record in the event.
The Vincennes distance team continued with sophomore Caden Hostetler (LaGrange, Ind.) placing 166th overall in the 10,000 meters with a time of 34:50.58.
Sophomore Cody Noel (Hebron, Ind.) and freshman Lane Connaway (Carmi, Ill.) also took part in the 10k race, with Noel finishing with a time of 36:24.16 and Connaway posting a time of 36:38.22.
The men’s distance results were rounded out at the Distance Carnival by freshman Jeremy Mendez (Velpen, Ind.) and sophomore Nathan Whitehead (Vincennes, Ind.) who competed in the 5,000 meters.
Mendez came in with a final time of 16:45.36 to place 293rd overall and Whitehead placed 323rd overall with a time of 17:30.39.
The women’s distance results were led by sophomore Adi Fuller (Evansville, Ind.) who took 222nd overall in the 5,000 meters with a time of 21:18.51.
Freshman Alexis Hale (Evansville, Ind.) finished just behind Fuller in the 5k, placing 223rd overall with a time of 21:20.19.
“Friday did not have good conditions for running fast the majority of the day,” VU Interim Head Track and Field Coach Tyler Steigenga said. “Every team had to deal with a warm day that we hadn’t experienced since October that was not optimal for distance running. The winds picked up in the afternoon as well and made for some slow times in every heat. We did not have the day we were looking for for a lot of our events, but we were not alone in that.”
“Caden and Alexis had the best races in the morning,” Steigenga added. “Caden ran a very consistent effort for the entire 25 laps of the 10k. He went out in last place and kept moving up the entire race, passing over half the field. Alexis came away with a new PR in the 5k, but the time doesn’t really tell the whole story. She has improved a ton since she ran her old PR during Cross Country. She’ bound to drop a lot more time this outdoor season.”
“Anis was the highlight of the meet as he was the last distance runner to compete, four hours after the rest had run,” Steigenga said. “The weather changed a lot during that time, which resulted in conditions that were a lot more optimal for racing fast. He took advantage of it by placing 10th overall in the 49 athlete field and setting a new school record of 3:49.79, just under the old record by 0.13 seconds.”
The rest of the Trailblazer Track and Field teams headed to Terre Haute Saturday for the 2025 Pacesetter Invitational.
The VU men’s track results were headlined by the 4×400 relay team of freshmen Devin Wilson (Indianapolis, Ind.), ArTezz Butler-Sanders (Indianapolis, Ind.), Kelvin Kipsang (Kapsabet, Kenya) and sophomore Tanner Spence (Carmi, Ill.).
The VU relay team placed eighth overall with a final time of 3:33.53.
