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EVANSVILLE, Ind. -Â On a record-setting weekend, the University of Evansville men’s and women’s track and field teams found success in their second meet of the season at the Don DeNoon Invitational in Carbondale, Ill. hosted by Southern Illinois.
In all, five program records were broken by the Aces including one record which had stood since 1985.
To open the weekend, the Aces had four athletes compete on Friday night. Freshman Ian Alberts led Evansville with an eighth-place finish with a height of 3.85 meters while fellow freshman Kevin Yeung finished without recording a height. In the women’s long jump, freshman Lizzy Walston set a program record with a ninth-place finish with a distance of 4.51 meters. Junior Hayley Elliot also competed in the women’s long jump, finishing in 12th with a distance of 3.49 meters. Yeung pulled double duty for the Aces, earning a 16th-place finish in the men’s long jump with a distance of 5.07 meters.
A full slate of events for the Aces began on Saturday morning with the men’s and women’s shot put. Freshman Brittany Corley was the lone Aces in the women’s shot put, finishing in 31st with a distance of 8.64 meters. Three Aces competed in the men’s shot put, led by junior Ryan Freeman who broke a 32-year old record with a throw of 12.62 meters, besting Tim Blocker’s record by .36 meters, earning a 16th-place finish. Senior Clay Doty (21st) and sophomore Chris Zapata (22nd) both grabbed impressive finishes with Doty besting Zapata by just .25 meters.
Next up for Evansville were the men’s and women’s 60-meter dash where the Aces had one sprinter in each competition. In the women’s 60-meter dash, freshman Nikki Hutchcraft crossed the line in 30th breaking her own program record with a time of 8.23 seconds. On the men’s side, freshman Aaron Straight finished in 11.48 seconds in 35th.
Some of the most impressive performances of the weekend came in the men’s and women’s mile run. On the women’s side, freshman Anna Lowry shattered the Aces’ program record by nearly 35 seconds while capturing a 25th-place finish in the 50 runner field. The Aces men’s team was led by freshman Ricky Hendrix (4:39.77) in 34th while fellow freshmen Tyler Frields-Reifsteck (4:45.96), Timmy Miller (4:58.88), and Grant Mangan (5:24.77) finished in 37th, 42nd, and 46th, respectively.
