The Purple Aces competed in 18 events in the first day of competition
CARBONDALE, Ill. – On the first day of the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Conference Championships, the University of Evansville track and field team reset four program records while qualifying for three finals.
After a day of competition, the Purple Aces men’s team is ninth of 10 teams while the women’s team is tied with two other schools for 10th. UE’s men qualified for three final events on Sunday as sophomore Raymond Felton III (Houston / Clear Brook) placed in the top five in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes while senior Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS) placed fifth in the 800-meter race. Overall, Evansville had nine runners set new PRs with four new program records.
SPRINTS, HURDLES, & RELAYS
Junior Kate Walke (Batesville, Ind. / Oldenberg Academy) had the first short-distance event of the day with the 100-meter hurdles. Walke placed 12th in the event with a time of 15.27 seconds. The Aces then competed in the 400-meter races, where freshman Myles Terry (Evansville, Ind. / North HS) finished 12th with a time of 49.81 seconds. While on the women’s side, sophomore Taylor Johnson (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) finished a place higher in 11th place with a time of 56.77 seconds to rebreak her program record by just under three tenths of a second.
In the 100-meter dash events, Felton III qualified for Sunday’s final in third with a new PR of 10.48 seconds. Felton’s 100-meter dash time also broke the UE program record that’s stood since 1973. Junior José Ocampo (Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) and sophomore Connor Shin (Bloomington, Ind. / Bloomington North HS) also finished in the event with times of 11.05 and 11.07 seconds.
Evansville returned to the hurdles for the 400-meter event. Freshman Zander Pickens (Poseyville, Ind. / North Posey HS) set a new PR in the event with his first finish at under a minute, running the event in 58.82 seconds. In the women’s event, Johnson finished a place outside of qualifying for the finals with a time of 1:02.92. But she did set a new program record in the event by three-quarters of a second.
The Aces ended their first day of the championship with the men’s 200-meter dash. Felton III qualified for the 200 finals as well, placing fifth with a time of 21.09 seconds. Felton’s time also set a new program record for UE, beating the previous record from 1979 by just under a tenth of a second. Terry and Shin also ran in the event for Evansville, finishing with times of 21.85 and 22.14 seconds.
MID-DISTANCE
Sophomore Tommaso Losma (Lombardia, Italy) ran the first mid-distance event of the afternoon. Losma ran the men’s 1,500-meter race in 4:04.21. In the women’s 1,500 race, sophomore Chase Hayes (Noblesville, Ind. / Western HS) set a new PR, finishing in 4:48.80.
The Aces’ only mid-distance qualifier was Oulgout in the men’s 800-meter race. Oulgout placed fifth overall on Saturday with a PR of 1:50.79 seconds. Sophomore Cedrik Flipo (Beloeil, Quebec) finished just outside of qualifying range with a time of 1:52.24 for 10th. In the women’s 800-meter race, Hayes finished two seconds under her season best at 2:21.96.
DISTANCE
The first track event of the day for UE was bright and early on Saturday morning as sophomores Samuel Lea (Worcester, England) and Avery Stephens (Newburgh, Ind. / Castle HS) ran in the 10K race. Both had top 10 finishes in the event as Lea had the fastest time at 31:06.35 for sixth place, and only seven seconds off the current program record set in 2004. While Stephens finished ninth in the women’s race with a PR of 38:57.23.
THROWS
Freshman Emma Bertel (Franklin, Ind. / Franklin Community HS) was the first Evansville thrower to compete on Saturday. Bertel placed 16th in the women’s discus with a throw of 35.66 meters, only a little over a meter of her season best throw. In the men’s discus, sophomores Cole Johnson (Salem, Ill. / Salem Community HS) and Tyler Cherne (Boardman, Ohio / Boardman HS) finished back-to-back with throws of 40.68 and 39.95 meters.
The Aces’ throwers then moved to the javelin. Senior Kaitlyn Sansone (Fairfield, Ohio / Mercy McAuley HS) threw for 28.86 meters. In the men’s javelin, Johnson competed in his second event of the day with a throw of 37.07 meters.
UP NEXT
UE begins day two of the MVC Outdoor Championships at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning with the men’s hammer and the women’s shot put. Evansville’s first track event of the day will be at 1:15 p.m. for the men’s 4×100-meter relay.
