Top 10 finishes highlight strong showing at Michael Johnson Invitational

By Joseph Segreti, Sports Reporter
April 23, 2023

DeKALB – A pair of top 10 finishes highlighted NIU women’s track and field’s visit to Waco, Texas for the Michael Johnson Invitational.

The Huskies had several athletes earn personal records and season bests in their events, totaling seven new personal best times and jumps.

NIU’s top finish for the day was the 4×100 meter relay team which consisted of fifth-year Kimone Hines, junior Skylynn Blue, junior Scout Regular and graduate Suerethia Henderson. The team’s official time was 45.22 seconds, a new outdoor season best for the relay team.

Fifth year Diamond Riley earned the second top 10 finish for NIU in the triple jump. Riley jumped 12.75 meters, a new personal best by .01 meters.

Graduate Emma Planck took a 12th place finish for the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:41.39. Planck’s time was less than a second behind the University of Texas at Austin’s freshman Virginia Knight.

Fifth year Kadeja Campbell finished in 14th place in the 400-meter dash. Campbell’s official time was 54.84 seconds.

Junior Scout Regular took a 16th place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.01 seconds. NIU graduate Aquilla St. Louis finished in 19th place in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.22 seconds, a new personal record.

Hines competed in the 100-meter dash, finishing tied for 18th place with the University of Texas Arlington‘s sophomore Adeyemi Talabi. Hines’ time of 11.76 seconds tied her personal best, as she achieved the time earlier this season at the Fighting Illini Challenge in Urbana-Champaign.

Blue ran the 200-meter dash, collecting a new season best time of 23.93 seconds while grabbing 16th place in the event.

“The Michael Johnson Invite at Baylor has always been good to us,” NIU Director of Track and Field Connie Teaberry said via NIU Athletics. “It’s a competition that the athletes tend to compete well in. We made additional leaps up the MAC list with improvements from Skylynn Blue in the 200, dipping into the 23’s, and Kimone Hines dropping time each race.”