Track hits mark across 3 meets

By Rhema Rhea

Track and field competed in three meets in three days and put up solid showings over the weekend.

On Thursday, the Huskies kicked off the weekend in Austin and San Marcos, Texas, for the Texas Relays and Bobcat Invitational, respectively.

For the second straight weekend, junior Latesha Bigby hit the automatic qualifying mark for the MAC Championship. This time it was in the 400-meter hurdles event. Bigby’s time of 1:01.87 was just 11-hundreths of a seconds off Jenelle McCalla’s 2010 record.

The discus-throwing pair of Sidra Sherrill and Tyra Bickham led the way for the field event Huskies as they set personal bests in the event to notch eighth- and ninth-place finishes with tosses of 152-10 and 150-02, respectively.

“This was a very busy weekend for us,” said head coach Connie Teaberry. “We split the team up and kind of double-dipped with all the girls from Texas Relays and Texas State and tried to capitalize on the warm weather that we had.”

During the second day of competition, NIU was highlighted by freshman Claudette Day. She broke the program heptathlon record, totaling 4,741 points, which allowed her to finish tied for first with Louisiana Lafayette’s Kaitlyn Moreau.

The distance runners competed at the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C., where three runners earned personal records in their respective events.

In the 1,500 meters, sophomore Ali Olson set a personal best running the invitational section of the event, finishing with a 24th-place time of 4:33.82. Mile record holder Meghan Heuer was right behind Olson, crossing the line in 27th with a 4:34.14.

Sophomore Hannah Savage also set a personal record, breaking the tape at 4:43.29 to claim 24th in the college section portion of the event.

NIU finished Saturday at the Bobcat Invitational, where the Huskies notched three second-place finishes.

Bigby requalified for the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in second place with a 13.75 in the event. It was the first time Bigby finished in under 14 seconds.

Rebecca Cronin claimed a second-place finish in the 800 meters. She clocked in with a 2:12.13.

Bigby, Rebecca Cronin, Tahtyana Peer and Julianne Cronin grabbed a second-place finish in the 4×400 relay with a 3:46.26, which came within five-hundredths of a second of the school record.

“We had a lot going on this weekend,” Teaberry said. “There was some bright spots and some low spots. For the most part, [it was] well worth the trip. The girls got to do some events that we have not able to contest outside yet as far as practices. So, they gave us a good showing, but we have a long way to go.”