Salukis head south to Tennessee Relays

The Southern Illinois track and field program heads south for the 50th running of the Tennessee Relays, beginning Thursday, April 6.

The Salukis will be one of 16 teams competing at the three-day meet, a field that includes eight nationally ranked teams. The field is made up of four schools from the Big Ten (Ohio State, Illinois, Indiana, and Rutgers), five schools from the Atlantic Coast Conference (Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and No. 14 Virginia Tech), four schools from the Southeastern Conference (No. 2 Kentucky, No. 12 Tennessee, No. 15 Ole Miss and Vanderbilt) as well as Eastern Michigan and Middle Tennessee State.

"The Tennessee Relays will be are first look at where we are at," SIU Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Kathleen Raske said. "We are going to put everything out there. It's an interesting meet because we not only have an opportunity to go after our individual events, but on the track Saturday are all relays. So we will have a chance to run some fun relays and to go after some school records."

Southern is coming off of a strong showing at the Joey Haines Invitational in which the Salukis set 24 personal-bests and tallied three top-10 school marks.

Shafiqua Maloney ran the fastest 400-meter dash time in the Missouri Valley Conference at the Joey Haines Invitational. Maloney finished with a time of 54.37, which was not only a personal-best, but it is the seventh-best mark in school history and is also the 16th-best mark in the NCAA west region.

Over in the field events, Nikki Freeman, in just her second collegiate meet throwing the discus, finished as the runner-up with a toss of 163'-9" (49.92m). It not only shattered her previous personal-best in the event by 12 feet, but was the 10th-best mark in school history. She currently has the second-best throw in the Missouri Valley Conference this season and ranks 28th in the west region.

On the men's side, Jared Kern picked up where he left off after indoor season. The SIU indoor shot put record holder threw 61'-4" (18.69m), which was the sixth-best throw in school history and the 10th-best mark in the west region. Kyle Landon, meanwhile, ranks in the top-20 in the west region in all three jumps, and is the only jumper, male or female in either region to rank in the top-20 of all three. After he set a personal-best in the long jump and added a win in the high jump at the Joey Haines Invitational, the Chester, Ill. native earned the 10th MVC Men's Field Athlete of the Week honors of his career.

The Tennessee Relays get underway Thursday with the men's and women's multi events followed by the women's and men's hammer throw. Friday's competition begins at 2:45 p.m. with the 400m hurdles. The relays will also be streamed on the ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app on Friday from 3-7:40 p.m. here and on Saturday from 12-4 p.m. here.

Schedule of Events
Thursday, April 6

Multi Events
10 a.m. | Women's Heptathlon (100mh, High Jump, Shot Put, 200m)
10:30 a.m. | Men's Decathlon (100m, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, 400m)

Field Events
4 p.m. | Women's Hammer
6:30 p.m. | Men's Hammer

Running Events
9 p.m. | Men's 10,000m

Friday, April 7

Multi Events
10 a.m. | Men's Decathlon (110m Hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin, 1500m)
11 a.m. | Women's Heptathlon (Long Jump, Javelin, 800m)

Saturday, April 8

Calendar

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Players Mentioned

Nikki Freeman

Jared Kern

Kyle Landon

Shafiqua Maloney

Scoreboard

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