Southern Illinois University
Saluki Fast Start
Track and Field Dazzles at Saluki Fast Start
12/10/2016 | 11:05:00 | Track and Field
Salukis post 14 first-place finishes and five top-10 school marks in season opening meet.
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois track and field team racked up 14 first-place finishes and five top-10 school marks at the Saluki Fast Start on Saturday, Dec. 9.
The Saluki sprinters set three of the five top-10 marks, led by sophomores Tyjuana Eason and Warren Hazel.
Eason took first in both the 60- and the 200-meter dashes on Saturday, notching new personal-bests in both races. The sophomore sprinter from Kankakee, Ill. won the 60m with a personal-best time of 7.57, the fifth-fastest mark in school history and followed by winning the 200m in 24.68. Eason's 200m time is tied for the third-fastest in school history, and the fastest 200m indoors by a Saluki since 2010.
Hazel, who captured bronze in the 400m at the U-23 NACAC Championships this past summer, won both the 60- and the 400-meter dashes on Saturday. The Old Roads, St. Kitts native ran the 60m for the first time as a Saluki and ran the fifth-fastest time in school history, crossing the finish line in 6.87. Hazel nearly put another top-10 school mark on the board in the 400m, as his winning time of 48.53 was .11 milliseconds off of the tenth-fastest time in that event.
BriAnna Branch and Kilee Hagerstrand both put their names in the school record book on their first tries, as both transfers were making their Saluki debuts.
Branch, a transfer from Mount Mercy University (NAIA), finished third in the 60m with a time of 7.67. It marks the ninth-fastest time in school history.
Hagerstrand, a transfer from Central Arizona College (JUCO), claimed first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.89. She qualified for the finals in the 60m hurdles with a prelim time of 8.82, which ties her with Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Kathleen Raske for ninth on Southern's all-time list.
Madison Meyer made her collegiate debut a memorable one, as she won both the high jump and the long jump. The freshman from Carterville, Ill. native leaped 18'-3.25" (5.57m) to win the long jump, and later cleared 5'-2.25" to finish first in the high jump.
Several Saluki upperclassmen got their seasons off to good starts, with Franklin Adams, Austin Weigle, Cara Engel and Freya Block all posting wins.
Adams won with a leap of 24'-1.5" (7.35m), which marked his furthest non-wind aided jump since Feb. 28, 2015 while Weigle set a personal-best in the high jump with a winning clearance of 6'-8" (2.03m).
Engel cleared 13'-0.25" to take first for her fourth career win while Block threw the weight 65'-3.5" (19.90m) to win her first collegiate event title.
The Salukis will train for a little over a month before returning to competition at the Illini Classic, hosted by the University of Illinois, on Jan. 13, 2017.
Players Mentioned
