By: The IC men and women swept the 60 Meter Dash, but the Blueboys and Lady Blues received excellent performances up and down the roster in other events as well.
Meet Results
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois College track & field teams put forth a great effort on Saturday at the Top Times Titan Open at Illinois Wesleyan University. The Blueboys totaled 72 points to finish second out of 14 teams at the event. The Lady Blues accumulated 26 points and ended in a tie for seventh out of 12 teams.
The 60 Meter Dash provided two of the biggest highlights of the day for Illinois College as both teams sprinted to victory and the Blueboys had a 1-2 finish in the event. For the Lady Blues,
Andrea Hyde ran a 7.91 in the prelims, easily the best time in the field. She then posted a 7.90 in the final to win by more than a tenth of a second with a time that ranks in a tie for 23rd nationally. In the prelims,
Bailey Leitschuh posted a time of 8.36 seconds, the fifth-best performance in school history.
IC wasn't done in the 60 Meter Dash.
Greg Cross and Nife Williams ran identical times of 7.13 seconds in the prelims, advancing to the final with the second-best times in the field. Once there, the Blueboy pair ended first and second in the race, with Cross becoming the second IC sprinter in school history to break the seven-second mark in the race with his winning time of 6.98 seconds. Williams was the runner-up in 7.04 seconds, the third-best time in school history. Cross currently ranks in a tie for 16th nationally in the event.
In the 200 Meter Dash, Williams and Cross were at it again for the Blueboys. Williams edged out the competition to win the event in 23.06 seconds. Cross took fourth place in 23.21 seconds. For the Lady Blues, Hyde was sixth in 27.18 seconds.
There was plenty of success to go around for Illinois College runners. In the 5,000 Meter Run,
Ashlyn Haage took second place with the third-best time in school history, crossing the finish line in 21:16.66.
Ali Pankey also recorded the fourth-best 800 Meter Run time in IC history, finishing fifth in the race in 2:33.16.
Elsewhere on the track,
Sean Kisch was sixth (8.89) and
Ben Rakers was seventh (8.97) in the 60 Meter Hurdles. The Blueboys had a 3-4-5 finish in the 5,000 Meter Run, with
Dillan Sorrells (18:31.35),
Tyler Devlin (18:36.90) and
Anthony Canton (18:41.35) supplying IC with a nice points haul.
Brett Peifer had a sixth-place finish in the 400 Meter Dash (52.41), and
Justin Pollard was eighth in the 800 Meter Run (2:08.48). The men's 4 x 400 Meter Relay team of
Jaxon Rieke, Peifer,
Austin Spriggs and
Chris Moore added a third-place showing in 3:33.25.
In field events, the Blueboys had two runner-up finishes. Kisch cleared a height of 14-3.25 (4.35 meters) in the pole vault, which doubles as the second-best effort in the pole vault in the MWC this season. In the weight throw,
Anthony Flores bettered his effort from last week and recorded the third-best throw in program history with a distance of 49-1 (14.96 meters). That is the third-best distance in the MWC so far in 2018. Flores also was 10th in the shot put with a distance of 38-0 (11.58 meters).
Other top field performers for Illinois College included Moore,
Levon Hendricks and
MacKenzie Heinz. Moore had the third-best high jump in the MWC this season by clearing the bar at 6-0 (1.83 meters). Hendricks was a dual threat in the long jump and triple jump, registering the second-best leaps in the MWC in both events. In the long jump, Hendricks was sixth overall at 21-3.25 (6.48 meters). In the triple jump, he was fourth at 44-0.75 (13.43 meters). For the Lady Blues, Heinz took fourth in the weight throw and had the second-best throw in the MWC at 43-11.75 (13.40 meters).
Illinois College comes back home to King Fieldhouse on Feb. 3, hosting the Jim Green Invite beginning at 10 a.m.
