DeKALB—NIU track hit the ground running to start 2019 with strong performances at Saturday’s Purdue Gene Edmonds Invitational in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Sophomore jumper Kenyae Majors highlighted the day for the Huskies, setting a school record in the long jump, leaping 5.84 meters. Her jump automatically qualified for the Mid-American Conference Championships and bested the previous record set by her teammate, senior jumper Jehvania Whyte, by .01 meters.

Assistant Coach Adrian Myers was excited to see Majors’ work pay off and said he knows it’s a sign of good 0things to come.

“[Majors] really nailed a great jump tonight in her series,” Myers said to NIU Athletics. “That performance really shows what she’s capable of, and we look forward to seeing her consistency grow from that. Anytime you can take a school record off our board, it’s a heck of a performance.”

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The 400-meter dash was a popular event for NIU as the Huskies ended with three first-years finishing in the top 10. First-year sprinter Jahnetta Jones took second place with a time of 57 seconds, followed by first-year Taylor Tilmon in fifth place at 58.76 seconds and first-year Kaitlyn Lewis in seventh place at 59.35 seconds.

Myers said he liked what he saw from the underclassmen.

“[Jones] ran a great 400 tonight and showed everyone she will be someone to watch at this distance,” Myers said. “She is an excellent competitor; her teammates, Tilmon and Lewis, ran strong as well and continue to train to be great.”

The young Huskies performed well, but junior hurdler Remy Amarteifio showed her value to the team too. Amarteifio took second in the 60-meter hurdles. Her time of 8.52 seconds was good enough to automatically qualify for MAC Championships and was the fastest record time in conference this season.

As for distance races, NIU posted two top-five finishes in the 3,000-meter run. Sophomore distance-runner Mackenzie Callahan took second with a time of 10:13.04 minutes, while junior distance-runner Melissa Ricci followed with a fourth-place finish at a time of 10:24.96 minutes.

Myers was proud of his runners’ performance, even through their vigorous training.

“On the distance side, we wanted to take advantage of a low-key race environment to finish off a very hard training cycle,” Myers said. “We got into deep waters this week in training, and tonight [we] had the women run off distances to challenge themselves a bit.

With winter break behind them, the Huskies look to build off their early season performances. NIU will return to the track 10 a.m. Saturday for the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana.