The Purple Aces wrapped up their weekend in Nashville on Saturday
NASHVILLE – The University of Evansville track and field team had two more record performances on Saturday for a successful weekend at the Outdoor Music City Challenge.
The Purple Aces finished their time in the Music City with three more new records and two podium finishes. UE’s men set two more program records on the track in the 800-meter race and the 4×400-meter relay race. Sophomore Cedrik Flipo (Beloeil, Quebec) ran the 800-meter race in 1:49.41 while Evansville’s 4×400 relay team improved on their record from two weeks ago. Sophomore sprinter Taylor Johnson (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) took down an eight-year record in the 400-meter hurdles in her first-ever collegiate hurdles event with a time of 1:03.66.
“This weekend was a critical weekend for big performances, and we delivered in a major way,” said Head Coach Dylan Anderson after the meet. “Vanderbilt always puts on a great, efficient meet and did so even with weather delays both days. I’m really encouraged that we are at our best at the right time.”
SPRINTS, HURDLES, RELAYS
The Aces’ first event of the afternoon was one of their best results of the day, the men’s 4×100-meter relay. UE’s team of sophomore Connor Shin (Bloomington, Ind. / Bloomington North HS), junior Jose Ocampo (Monterrey, Nueva Leon, Mexico), freshman Myles Terry (Evansville, Ind. / North HS), and sophomore Raymond Felton III (Houston / Clear Brook HS) earned the top spot in the event with a time of 41.16 seconds. The mark by the relay team was three hundredths of a second behind their best performance of the season at SIUE.
Terry was the next Evansville runner to compete, finishing the 400-meter race in 53.68 seconds. Johnson ran the women’s 100-meter dash, placing 14th with a time of 12.47 seconds. In the preliminary men’s 100-meter dash, Shin had the highest finish at seventh with an even 11.00 seconds to qualify for the finals. Ocampo finished 12th to round out the Aces runners at 11.14 seconds.
Johnson competed in her first-ever hurdles event on Saturday, running in the 400-meter hurdles. She ran the event in 1:03.66 to finish in the Top 10 right at 10th while also setting a new program record in the process. In the men’s 100-meter dash final, Shin finished eighth with a slightly slower time of 11.08 seconds.
UE finished its day on the track with another broken program record. The men’s 4×400 relay team of Felton III, Terry, Shin, and Flipo placed second in the event with a time of 3:16.86, only two and a half seconds behind winners, Tennessee State. The relay team improved on their program record from their prior meet by two seconds.
MID-DISTANCE
Evansville only had one mid-distance event on Saturday afternoon, with the 800-meter races. Sophomore Chase Hayes (Noblesville, Ind. / Western HS) finished just off her PR with a time of 2:21.04.
Both of the Aces’ runners in the men’s race finished in the Top 10, with Flipo at fifth with a time of 1:49.41. Flipo’s time set a new program record for UE in the event, just beating out teammate Rafael Rodrigez’s (Sergovia, Spain) time from last season by almost two seconds. Senior Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS) set a PR to finish ninth with a time of 1:51.29 to round out individual track performances for Evansville.
THROWS
The Aces’ meet day began early in the field with the hammer throws. Sophomore Tyler Cherne (Boardman, Ohio / Boardman HS) was the first to compete as he had a throw of 43.32 meters. Junior Gwen Darrah (Cleveland / Orange HS) placed fourth in the women’s hammer throw at a half meter off her season best with a throw of 42.43 meters. UE’s final throws event was the women’s shot put, where freshman Emma Bertel (Franklin, Ind. / Franklin Community HS) threw 9.47 meters.
