Southern Illinois University
McDonald's Invitational
Track and field blows by competition at McDonald's Invitational
02/06/2010 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
Feb. 6, 2010
By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois men's and women's track and field teams won the 2010 McDonald's Invitational that concluded Saturday inside the SIU Rec Center. The women's team scored 207.5 points to beat Memphis in second place by 118 points and the men scored 160 to win by 60 points, also over Memphis in second.
Sophomore Jeneva McCall had the highlight individual performance of the weekend, as she automatically qualified for the women's shot put. She threw 55-11.75, which is just two inches off of Amarachi Ukabam's school record that was set in 2006.
In all, the Saluki women won nine events in the meet, six of which came on Saturday. The men won seven events over the course of the meet and six of those were on the final day.
"It's one of our first scored meets and it is nice to see our athletes come out and compete as a team," head coach Connie Price-Smith said. "It was nice to see our teams score so many points, especially on our women's side. We hit a few provisional marks and one automatic qualifying mark, which always makes for a good meet."
Malaikah Love added on to her strong sophomore campaign. She won the triple jump on Saturday after winning long jump on Friday. She also took third in the 60-meter dash, finishing in a time of 7.78. That is the fastest time any Saluki has put up in event this season.
The SIU men won the 60m, 400m, 800m and mile run. Anthony Seay, in his first meet as a Saluki, won the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.90. Brandon Deloney took the 400-meter dash in a time of 49.35. Zach Dahleen and Jason Ordway rounded out the winning in the running events, as Dahleen took the 800m and Ordway won the mile. Lucas Cherry and Daniel Dunbar were right behind Ordway to give SIU a one-two-three finish in the mile.
Southern Illinois also posted a one-two-three finish in the men's shot put. Joe Paradiso won the even with his career-best throw of 55-10.25. Matt Eader and Ryan Shumaker finished second and third in the event for the Salukis.
Kandise Thompson blew the competition away in the women's 200-meter dash, doing so in a personal-best time of 24.80. Other Salukis to set personal-bests were Gwen Berry in the shot put (51-04.50), which hit the NCAA provisional mark, and Mercedes Dunn in the triple jump.
Freshman Kasey Oceguera took first place in the women's high jump by clearing 5-04.25 and Maxim Bakana won the men's triple jump with a mark of 47-05.00.
Players Mentioned
