NIU track and field opened its season at the Blue and Gold Invitational on Friday, ending with 11 top-five finishes.
The Huskies traveled to South Bend, Indiana for its first action of the season and went on to have three individual winners at the invitational.
Sophomore Stella Oyebode earned a first place finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.60 seconds, outpacing University of Purdue Fort Wayne junior Aniya Young by .04 seconds to earn the victory.
Winning the 800-meter run with a time of 2:18.78, sophomore Emma Curry was the second Huskie to earn a first place victory at the invitational.
The first of three Huskie to finish in the top-three in the triple jump, sophomore Precious Umukoro took the title, with her longest jump measuring in at 11.67 meters.
Freshman Nicole Green and senior Aniya Barton rounded out the top-three for the triple jump, with Green placing second with a jump of 11.49 meters. Barton’s longest jump for the event was 11.39 meters, earning third place.
Umukoro also earned a top-three finish in the long jump, with her longest jump measuring at 5.78 meters for a third-place finish.
With her longest jump of the day measuring 5.62 meters, junior Tod’Jai Ross junior took fifth place for the long jump.
Freshman Kyla Motley finished in second place for the 60-meter hurdles. Motley’s time for the event was 8.940, less than thousandth of a second behind Purdue Fort Wayne sophomore Jaliyah Page, who won the event.
Needing just one attempt to clear 1.67 meters, junior Arianna Calloway finished in second place in the high jump.
Clearing the mark on her second attempt, sophomore Jasmin Raes finished the high jump tied for third place.
Graduate student Samira Rosenfeld rounded out the top-five for the high jump, clearing the mark of 1.62 meters on her third attempt before failing to clear the mark of 1.67 meters.
“The first meet is under our belts and the staff is pleased with the efforts of our athletes,” said Director of Track and Field Connie Teaberry via NIU Athletics. “Our team this year is made up of a lot of athletic stories from injuries the previous year to injury comebacks this year, surgeries, new events and coaches, yet the athletes arrive at practice to work each day and laid everything out on the track today. We can’t ask for more. We will keep plugging away and improving on our technical issues, so each competition can show growth.”
The Huskies’ next invitational will be on Jan. 16 in Ames, Iowa at the Bill Bergan Open, hosted by Iowa State University.
