The Purple Aces competed in their final meet before MVC’s
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The University of Evansville track and field team earned two podium finishes at the last meet before the conference championship next Sunday.
In their last tune-up for competition against only Missouri Valley Conference teams, the Purple Aces had their best women’s finish of the season at fourth. The women got to their best result with several points in the 800-meter race, taking all but one of the top five spots. Both teams earned meet-record results in the 800-meter race while setting multiple track PRs.
In the women’s 800-meter race, Nicole Prauchner (Neuhofen an der Ybbs, Austria) earned first place with a meet record of 2:13.51. Kalina Urbaniak (Suchy Las, Poland) and Eilen Brenne (Skien, Norway) also set meet records with times of 2:17.04 and 2:17.48 respectively. Nayla Martin (Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, Canada) also finished in the top five with a time of 2:19.03.
On the men’s side, Rafael Rodriguez (Segovia, Spain) and Alvaro Monfort (Castile Y Leon, Spain) set meet records with times of 1:56.07 and 1:56.54 for eighth and 10th place. Also finishing in the Top 15 were Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS) and Tommaso Losma (Lombardia, Italy). Losma set a PR to finish 14th with a time of 1:58.59.
UE also had strong finishes on the track in the men’s and women’s mile races. Samuel Lea (Worchester, England) set a PR of 4:20.59 in the men’s mile to finish fifth while Owen Cuplin finished 18th with a time of 4:36.59. On the women’s side, both Sarah Vanderhoof-Dossett (Franklin, Tenn. / Independence HS) and Kyndall Anthis (Pakota, Ind. / Princeton Community HS) set PRs at 5:22.50 and 5:38.78 for sixth and 12th place respectively.
Evansville’s sprinters had top 10 finishes in the men’s 60 meter dash, the women’s 60 meter hurdles, and the men’s 400-meter race. Freshman Austin Liversgowdy (Florence, Ky. / Cooper HS) had the best finish in the 400-meter race at sixth with a time of 51.16 seconds followed closely by Jose Ocampo (Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) in ninth at 52.22 seconds. Raymond Felton III (Houston / Clear Brook HS) finished the men’s 60-meter dash in seventh with a time of 7.16 seconds while Kate Walke (Batesville, Ind. / Oldenburg Academy) ran 10th in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.59.
Three more PRs were set for the Aces in their field events of the day. Graduate thrower Jaden Hayes (Huntingburg, Ind. / Southridge HS) had PRs in both the men’s shot put and weight throw with throws of 14.81 meters and 17.83 meters for ninth and fifth-place finishes. Freshman thrower Jillian Miller (Boonville, Ind. / Boonville HS) also set a PR for the women in the shot put with a throw of 9.36 meters for seventh place.
Also throwing for the women were Brooke Springer (Henderson, Ky. / Henderson Community HS) and Kaitlyn Sansone (Fairfield, Ohio / Mercy McAuley HS) in the shot put with throws of 9.07 and 8.83 meters. In the weight throw, Gwen Darrah (Cleveland, Ohio / Orange HS) finished fourth with a throw of 12.80 meters while Springer was fifth at 12.23 meters. Hannah Bryan (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) also threw seventh with a throw of 10.98 meters.
Rounding out throwing events for the Aces were Zach Dove (Princeton, Ind. / Princeton Community HS) and Cole Johnson (Salem, Ill. / Salem Community HS) on the men’s side. Dove placed seventh in the weight throw while Johnson placed 13th with throws of 17.39 meters and 11.31 meters respectively. Dove also threw in the men’s shot put for eighth place with a throw of 14.82 meters.
UE will have a little over a week off before heading to Chicago for the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships. Co-hosted by UIC and Valparaiso, the indoor championship will run on Sunday, Feb. 25, and Monday, Feb. 26. Events are set to begin at 9 a.m. on the 25th.
