Southern Illinois University
Illini Classic
Salukis resume indoor season at Illini Classic
01/13/2017 | 12:18:00 | Track and Field
THIS WEEK
The Southern Illinois track and field team travels to Champaign, Ill. for the Illini Classic this weekend. The meet is set for Saturday, January 14 with 10 schools set to compete, including Butler, Eastern Illinois, St. Louis, Notre Dame, Bradley and DePaul. Field events start at 10 a.m. beginning with the weight throw and running events will follow at 3 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
The Salukis racked up 14 first-place finishes and five top-10 school marks at the Saluki Fast Start on Saturday, Dec. 9.
Three Salukis, Tyjuana Eason, Warren Hazel and Madison Meyer, each won two event titles. Eason took first in both the 60- and the 200-meter dashes, notching new personal-bests in both races while Hazel won both the 60- and the 400-meter dashes. Meyer, a Carterville, Ill. native, won both the high jump and the long jump in her collegiate debut.
SALUKIS JUMP INTO ALL-TIME RANKINGS
Four Salukis posted top-10 school marks at the Saluki Fast Start. Tyjuana Eason kicked off her sophomore season in style, as she tied for the third-fastest 200m time and the fifth-fastest 60m time in school history. Warren Hazel, who won the 400m at the MVC Outdoor Championships as a freshman, ran the 60m for the first time as a Saluki and posted the fifth-fastest time in school history.
A pair of Saluki newcomers also etched their name in the school record books. BriAnna Branch posted the ninth-fastest 60m time in school history while Kilee Hagerstrand tallied the ninth-fastest 60m hurdles time in Saluki history.
FRESHMEN DEBUTS
11 freshmen made their collegiate track and field debuts at the Saluki Fast Start with four earning event titles.
Meyer won the high jump with a clearance of 5'-2.25" (1.58m) and followed with a win in the long jump. Savannah Long helped SIU's 4x400 meter relay team to a win as they posted a time of 4:02.67.
Four men made their debuts and one contributed a win. Jaylen Galloway placed first in the men's 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.74, and later finished third in the 60m dash. Nathan Stout placed third in the shot put in his collegiate debut.
Read more about SIU's freshmen class here.
SALUKIS IN NATIONAL RANKINGS
A pair of Saluki seniors, Freya Block and Cara Engel, rank in the top-10 nationally.
Block posted the first collegiate win of her career in the weight throw at the Saluki Fast Start. Block's winning toss of 65'-3.5" (19.90m) is the furthest throw in the Missouri Valley Conference this season, and has her ranked 10th in the nation.
Cara Engel cleared 13'-0.25" to take first in the pole vault at the Saluki Fast Start for her fourth career win. Her mark is the sixth-highest clearance in the nation and the best in the Valley so far this season.
Five additional Salukis posted top-20 marks.
For the men, Franklin Adams, Jared Kern and Isaac Ingram each rank 17th in their respective events. Adams took second in the long jump with a leap of 24'-1.5" (7.35m) in Southern's first meet, the second-best jump in the conference this season while Jared Kern threw the shot put 56'-10.75" in his Saluki debut, which is currently the furthest throw in the Valley. Ingram also ranks first in the Valley in the weight throw after recording a toss of 64'-5.25" in Southern's opener.
On the women's side, Katie Trupp cleared 12'-8.25" in the pole vault, which is the 18th-best mark in nation while Tjyuana Eason posted the fastest 200m time in the MVC and the 19th-fastest in the nation.
WEIGLE EARNS MVC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Weigle set a new personal-best in the high jump at the Saluki Fast Start on Dec. 9. The Kennebunk, Maine native cleared 6'-8" (2.03m) to win his first collegiate event title. He is a plant biology major with a 3.80 grade-point average and was awarded honorable mention by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship Foundation.
Read more about Weigle here.
MEDALISTS RETURN
The Salukis have a pair of athletes who returned to campus with medals after representing their respective countries over the summer. Kyle Landon captivated Saluki nation by taking second at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July, earning SIU's highest finish at the trials since 1992. He did not compete in the Salukis opener but is set to compete in both the high and long jumps this weekend.
Warren Hazel earned bronze in record-setting fashion, shattering the St. Kitts and Nevis 400m record with a lifetime-best time of 45.81. The sophomore sensation broke Melville Rogers' 14-year old national record of 47.24.
NEW FACES ON THE COACHING STAFF
SIU Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Kathleen Raske hired Kevin Cataldo and Dason Phelps to round out her coaching staff.
Cataldo comes to SIU from the University of Delaware and will serve as the head coach of the Saluki cross country program as well as the distance coach for the track and field program while Phelps will coach both pole vault and javelin and joined the Salukis after two years at Kansas State, where he trained the pole vaulters and assisted with the cross country and mid-distance/distance teams in his second year at K-State.
Read more about both coaches here.
SALUKIS SIGN SIKON
The Southern Illinois track and field team signed local standout Sam Sikon for the 2017-18 season, as he inked his letter of intent during the early signing period.
Sikon is a four-time state champion, as he repeated in both the discus and the shot put in back-to-back seasons. He became just the eight male in Illinois high school track and field history dating back to the 1900-01 season to sweep the shot put and discus in back-to-back seasons and the first to do so since 1999.
Read more about Sikon here.
NEXT TIME OUT
The Salukis will next travel to Nashville, Tenn. to take part in the Vandy Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt University. The two-day event is scheduled to begin Friday, Jan. 20, and conclude Saturday, Jan. 21.
Players Mentioned
