Recap | Track and Field have a strong open to the outdoor season

OXFORD, Miss. – Southern Illinois Track and Field completed its first home meet of the season at the Ole Miss Classic Saturday.

The season opener was a good one for us," said Director of Track and Field Richard Jones. "The ability to open up the season with good weather and competition helped, and now that we have opened up, we can look to making improvements and sharpening up over the next few weeks."

Day One
On day one, the Salukis competed in nine events, highlighted by big wins in the 200m dash.

Andre Jackson II continued to show why he was named the MVC Indoor Freshman of the Year. In the 200m dash, Jackson raced to the finish with a record time of 21.23 seconds. Beating his previous best mark by .22 seconds.

Leah Thames continues to impress by winning the 200m dash. Her time of 24.05 seconds sets a personal best mark, beating her previous record by .49 seconds. This time also puts Thames in 8^th place in school history in the event.

Na'Kyrah Cooks continues a strong freshman campaign, finishing second in the long jump event with a jump distance of 5.78m (18' 11.5").

Day Two
On day two, the Salukis continued to have strong performances on the track, with wins by the women's 4x100 relay squad, and the men's 110m hurdles.

The women's 4x100m relay event kicked off day two of the track events, with the Salukis squad of Trinity Cleaver, Leah Thames, Teanna Bell, and Keyann Wilson taking home the win with a time of 45.27 seconds. This time puts them in third place in school history in the event.

Jadon Robertson took home the win in the 110m hurdle event with a time of 14.60 seconds. Christian Coleman was right behind him, finishing in second place with a time of 14.62 seconds. The next closest finisher was .12 seconds behind them.

"It was nice for our guys to be back over 10 hurdles," said jumps coach, Jacob Brydson. "For our guys, it was a good first race from a technical execution standpoint and Jadon was able to eek one out over Christian today."

Keyann Wilson continued her strong performance on day two with a second-place finish in the 100m dash with a time of 11.93 seconds.

Nadir Langston finished second place in the 400m hurdles with a time of 53.90 seconds.

Weston Jokerst was part of the lead pack the entire way in the 3000m event, finishing in second place with a personal best time of 8:45.63 seconds.

"Very confident Weston can hold that pace for the 5K given he ran the 3K with less than 30 minutes after an outdoor personal best of 1:54 in the 800m race," said Distance Coach Angelina Ramos. "During a week where we didn't back off of training fast and hard in a tough session Thursday afternoon. We didn't taper off for this meet and he showed his durability to handle multiple races on a hot day."

The women's 4x400 relay event saw a second-place finish by Teanna Bell, Leah Thames, Vashti Grey and Salisa Palmer with a time of 3:45.61.

The men's 4x400 relay event saw a third place finished by Nadir Langston, Andre Jackson II, Christian Donatelli and Xavier Preston with a time of 3:14.25.

Kyan Bell finished in third place in the shot-put event with a throw distance of 15.95m (52' 4").

PERSONAL BESTS

Triniti Douglas – Women's 100m, 200m Dash – 12.28 Seconds, 25.83 Seconds
Jalynn Wood – Women's 100m Hurdles – 15.94 Seconds
Andre Jackson – Men's 200m Dash – 21.23 seconds
Leah Thames – Women's 200m Dash – 24.05 seconds
Kylee Weber – Women's 400m Dash – 1:00.91
Brodie Denny – Women's 800m, 1500m – 2:20.73, 4:52.91
Weston Jokerst – Men's 3000m - 8:45.63
Dallas Hodge – Men's Hammer Throw – 56.26m (184' 7")
Halaya Woodson – Women's Hammer Throw – 47.63m (156' 2")

Full results for the Ole Miss Classic can be seen here.

UP NEXT
The Salukis will head to St. Louis to compete in the WashU Distance Carnival on Friday, March 28.

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