Track hits mark at UTEP Invitational

By Rhema Rhea

Track and field sent two runners to the Chicagoland Championships while the rest of the team headed to the UTEP Invitational in Texas this weekend.

Head coach Connie Teaberry said the team did well despite problems traveling.

“This was a tough weekend for the ladies,” Teaberry said. “Our travel was already late with the layover. The ladies didn’t arrive to the hotel for checkin until 10:45 p.m. Friday. Their bodies didn’t respond well.

“Even with this misfortune, Carly Pederson had a solid race while Taylor Perkins responded well for her first competition. [Alexandria Isom] gave a gutsy performance in the triple jump, and Michaela Dwyer improved to a [personal record] in the high jump.”

Latesha Bigby continued her strong inaugural season and left Texas with three places of seventh or better.

Bigby’s top finish on the track came in the 400 hurdles. She ran a 1:02.45 to finish in third place out of 10. The junior broke the tape in fifth place out of 23 during the 100 hurdles earlier in the day with a time of 14.06 in the finals. Later in the day she posted a personal-record time of 12.01 in the 100 meters, which resulted in a seventh-place out of 25 showing.

Freshman Isom and senior Erica Miller earned personal bests in the 200 meters with runs of 25.43 and 28.06, respectively.

In field events, junior Michaela Dwyer set a personal record in the high jump with a height of 5-04.50 to claim a third-place out of 10 finish.

Freshman Logan Tillmon took eighth in the event at 4-10.50.

In her third competition as a Huskie, Jasmine Wilson threw 120-02 in the javelin, which was a fifth place out of 10 finish.

During the distance events, Carly Pederson and Claire McAuley grabbed ninth and 10th out of 17 in the 1,500 meters with times of 5:09.07 and 5:11.17, respectively.

At the Chicagoland Championships in Romeoville, redshirt freshman Leah Raffety and senior Juliane Totzke finished right behind each other in the 5,000 meters, ending in seventh and eighth out of 40. Totzke had a time of 17:58.62 while Raffety came in at 17:58.96.