WHITEWATER, Wis. – The Illinois College track & field teams tested themselves against high-level competition on Friday evening at UW-Whitewater's Rex Foster Twilight. Though the meet was unscored, the Lady Blues and Blueboys went up against national powers in UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh at the meet.
Illinois College had three event victories on Friday, all from the Lady Blues. In the 100 Meter Dash,
Andrea Hyde qualified for the final by running 12.41 in the prelims. In the final, her time of 12.54 was nearly half-a-second better than anyone else in the field. Later on, Hyde teamed with
Jaidyn Porter,
Bailey Leitschuh and
Olivia Molette to run a 49.28 in the 4 x 100 Meter Relay, finishing just ahead of UW-Whitewater with the fourth-best time in school history. The final win for IC came in the women's triple jump where
Dazha Shelby-Woods held off MSOE's Bianca Trombley by one inch to win with a leap of 33-11.25.
In other track events for the Lady Blues, Hyde finished as the runner-up in the 200 Meter Dash in 26.06 seconds. Leitschuh was fifth in the event (27.09) and Porter added a sixth-place finish (27.27). Porter also had Illinois College's best showing in the 400 Meter Dash, placing fifth in 1:01.99.
Jessie Hempen was one spot back in sixth at 1:03.00. In one of the longer races of the night,
Ashlyn Haage took eighth in the 1,500 Meter Run with a time of 5:21.62. Finally,
Olivia Frichtl was the runner-up in both the 100 Meter Hurdles and 400 Meter Hurdles with times of 17.13 seconds in the 100 and 1:17.84 in the 400.
After Shelby-Woods and her win in the triple jump, Molette had the best Illinois College showing in women's field events. The sophomore finished third in the long jump with a distance of 15-07.50. Leitschuh ended in fourth at 15-00.75.
Abbie Horstmann also competed in the triple jump along with Shelby-Woods, claiming fourth place at 32-08.25. In the high jump, both Horstmann and
Ali Pankey tied for fifth place by clearing 4-07.75.
Elizabeth Bowns had the best effort in a throws event for the Lady Blues, taking fifth place in the shot put at 37-03.00.
Jenna Kennedy finished seventh in the discus with a throw of 112-02. Two top-eight finishes also were recorded in the hammer throw, with
MacKenzie Heinz in seventh (126-01) and
Amanda Boeckman in eighth (122-08).
For the Blueboys, most of the highlights came on the track. The top overall finish on the night for the team came from the 4 x 400 Meter Relay squad of Dakota Stevens, Kyle Adams, Max Fowler and Jacob Fedderke, ending in second place with a time of 3:38.80. The Blueboys finished third in three other events. The 4 x 100 Meter Relay team of Rylan Hynek, Brett Peifer, Marshall Brown and Chris Moore clocked in at 42.35 seconds. Peifer ended in third place with a time of 22.34 seconds in the 200 Meter Dash and Stevens was third in the 110 Meter Hurdles in 16.06 seconds.
Elsewhere for the IC men's track team, Moore finished in fifth place in the 100 Meter Dash with a time of 11.17 seconds. Placing behind Peifer in the 200, Brown was seventh in 22.87 seconds. The freshman also had a fourth-place finish in the 400 Meter Dash in 50.44 seconds, with Austin Spriggs tacking on an eighth-place finish (51.77). Ben Rakers ended just behind Stevens in the 110 Meter Hurdles, taking sixth place in 16.34 seconds. He then wrapped up the 400 Meter Hurdles in fourth place with a time of 58.25 seconds.
The Blueboys had a relatively quiet day overall in field events, with just a pair of top-eight showings. Anthony Hand was sixth in the triple jump at 41-08.50 and Spriggs was seventh in the high jump, clearing a height of 5-11.50.
Illinois College will next travel to Greenville, Ill. for the Greenville Select Meet on April 13 starting at 11 a.m.
