BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — After a successful first meet of the season, the University of Evansville track and field team looks to improve over the weekend.
The Purple Aces broke a total of eleven program records at their first indoor meet of the 2024 season in Nashville. At the Commodore Challenge, UE in the first day had six runners break indoor program records and five team members set personal bests. All six of Evansville’s new records came during nonchampionship track events with an even split between the men’s and women’s events.
Program records were set by Nicole Prauchner (Neuhofen an der Ybbs, Austria BORGL St.Pölten) in the women’s 1000-meter, Rafael Rodriguez (Segovia, Spain Colegio Claret) in the men’s 1000-meter, Eline Brenne (Skien, Norway Telemark Toppidrett Gymnas) in the women’s 600-meter, Jakub Nowicki (Poznan, Poland) in the men’s 600-meter, Taylor Johnson (Evansville, Ind., Reitz HS) in the women’s 300-meter, and Raymond Felton III (Houston, Clear Brook HS) in the men’s 300-meter.
The final day of the Commodore Challenge runners Taylor Johnson (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) and Nicole Prauchner (Neuhofen an der Ybbs, Austria BORGL St.Pölten) added two more individual records in the 400 and 800-meter races. While Samuel Lea (Worchester, England / Worchester Sixth Form College) set a record in the 3000 meters with a time of 8:31.79.
Evansville also ended the weekend with two more program records in both the women’s and men’s 4×400 meter relays. The women’s team of Johnson, Prauchner, Eilen Brenne (Skien, Norway / Telemark Toppidrett Gymnas), and Nayla Martin (Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, Canada) broke the former record by over seven seconds at 4:03.37. While the men’s team of Austin Liversgowdy (Florence, Ky. / Cooper HS), Raymond Felton III (Houston, Clear Brook HS), Jose Ocampo (Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico), and Alvaro Monfort (Castile Y Leon, Spain / I.E.S. Alonso de Madrigal) shaved a second off the record from 2020 at 3:27.67.
This weekend, UE will spend two days in Bloomington at the Indiana Invitational hosted by the Indiana Hoosiers. The Aces will see some familiar faces in their second meet of the indoor season in fellow MVC competitors Indiana State and Southern Illinois. Six other teams are also participating in the weekend’s invitational in hosts IU, Cincinnati, Dayton, Marshall, Miami (Ohio), and Division III DePauw. The weekend will begin with field events at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon until sprints wrapping up just before 9 p.m. On Saturday, competition begins at 9 a.m. with the final ev
