Salukis sweep team titles at Mondo Team Challenge

Thursday, March 29

Sacramento, CA

TBA

Southern Illinois University

Sacramento State

Photo by: Will Becque

03/31/2018 | 10:30:00 | Track and Field

Results

The Southern Illinois men's and women's track and field teams both won team titles at the inaugural Mondo Team Challenge Saturday, hosted by Sacramento State. The Salukis won eight event titles, tallied seven top-10 school marks and totaled 26 top-3 finishes across 18 events to win both team titles.

SIU's men won the six-team competition with 149 points on the strength of six event wins to finish ahead of Long Beach State (127), Sacramento State (102), UC Riverside (68), UC Irvine (52) and North Dakota ().

The Saluki men scored 60 of their 178 points (33.7%) in the competition's four throwing events, including 26 points in the shot put and 23 points in the hammer throw.

On the women's side, Southern scored 111 points behind 13 top-3 finishes to edge out Sacramento State (107.25), UNLV (107.25), Long Beach State (94), North Dakota (53), UC Riverside (41) and UC Irvine (39.50).

Seven Salukis posted wins on Saturday. Tyjuana Eason (200m) and Kelly O'Shea (3000m Steeplechase), Warren Hazel (400m), Canoy Tyree (800m), Luke Horton (1500m), Marcellus Fletcher (triple jump), Jared Kern (shot put) and Ricky Hurley (hammer throw) all took home event titles.

Eason won the 200m dash with a personal-best time of 23.96. It marked just the fifth sub-24 second 200m time in school history. The Kankakee, Ill. native scored 18 points, as she added a sixth place finish in the 100m dash and a fourth place showing in the 4x100 relay. Eason combined with Alicia Reed, Genesis Ewell and Bri'Anna Branch to clock a time of 45.93, which was the fifth-fastest 4x100 relay time in program history.

O'Shea won her first collegiate event title in the 3000 meter steeplechase with a lifetime-best time of 11:00.66. The senior transfer remains sixth in school history in the event while she moved up to third in the Missouri Valley Conference with her winning time.

Shauneice O'Neal tallied 16 points on the strength of runner-up finishes in the discus and the hammer throw. Her mark in the hammer was particularly impressive as the Florissant, Mo. native notched a nearly 14 foot PR with a toss of 190'-4" (58.02m). It is the 26th-best mark in the NCAA west region and is well past the USATF Junior Outdoor Championship qualifying standard of 177'-2" (54m).

Alex Martel scored 12 points with a pair of third place finishes in the 800m and the 1500m. Martel ran a personal-best 2:11.64 in the 800m, which is the eighth-fastest time in school history.

Hazel ran 46.91 to win the 400m dash. The Old Roads, St. Kitts native's time is the 11th-fastest quarter mile time in the west region and the fastest in the Missouri Valley Conference. The two-time national qualifier was Southern's top point scorer with 26 points, which included a win in the 400m and runner-up finishes in the 200m and 4x400m relay.

Tyree won his first collegiate event title in the 800 meter run with a personal-best time of 1:51.86. It was more than two seconds faster then his previous best mark and is not only the top time in the MVC, but is the 18th-best time in the west region. He also ran the second leg of the 4x400 relay that placed second.

Keeping with the distance runners, Luke Horton won the 1500m and finished third in the 800m to score 16 points. The Harrisburg, Ill. native ran 3:55.55 to win the 1500m for the first time this season.

Fletcher cleared 50'-2.5" (15.30m) to win the triple jump for the second-straight meet. The Tennessee transfer moved up to 18th in the west region, and first in the Missouri Valley Conference, with his mark.

Kern won the shot put for the second-straight meet Saturday. The Machesney Park, Ill. native threw 61'-9.75" (18.04m) to help SIU score 26 points in the event. Ricky Hurley took second in the event, and he finished 1-2-3 in the circle for the Salukis. The Fox River Grove, Ill. native won the hammer throw, took second in the shot put and placed third in the discus to score 24 points. Hurley racked up a pair of top-10 school marks in the process with personal-bests in the shot put and the hammer throw. He moved up to seventh in school history in the hammer throw with his mark of 204'-4" (162.29m) while he jumped up to eighth in program history in the shot put with his toss of 59'-8.25" (18.19m).

The Salukis will next travel to Bowling Green, Ky. to take part in the Hilltopper Relays, hosted by Western Kentucky University. The two-day event is scheduled to begin on Friday, April 6 and conclude Saturday, April 7.