The SIU track and field teams dedicated the new Lew Hartzog Track and Field Complex Friday and Saturday in grand fashion with nine event wins and 11 personal records during the Bill Cornell Spring Classic.

Past and present Saluki athletes and administrators attended Friday’s event to witness the opening of Lew Hartzog Track and Field Complex, which was named after the Saluki Hall of Fame member and two-time NCAA National Coach of the Year.

Hartzog, who coached the track team from 1960-1984 and produced 90 All-Americans and 14 Olympians during his career, made the trip from his South Carolina home to witness his name being cemented on the Saluki campus.

“I wouldn’t have my name on anything if (the athletes) hadn’t been so great, and that’s the most important thing of all,” Hartzog said. “I don’t think I would have gone through the trouble of getting back here except I knew that they were going to be here, and that’s the reason. That’s why you do it all.”

The track and field teams didn’t disappoint in front of the storied coach, as the women finished in first place and the men second in the spring season’s first outdoor meet at home.

The teams finished with a combined 11 personal best performances throughout the weekend.

Sophomore distance runner Sadie Darnell led the meet’s track portion. Darnell placed second in the 3000-meter steeplechase run and finished in the finals with a time of 10 minutes, 58.74 seconds.

For the men, SIU freshman sprinter Brett Kohler ran 53.17 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles and placed third in the finals.

Junior Kenya Culmer paced the Salukis as she won both the high and triple jumps Saturday and accounted for 20 of SIU’s 178 meet points in the women’s competition.

Culmer first won the high jump with a 1.73-meter clearance and, then won the triple jump with a of 12.33-meter leap— the 10th-best all-time outdoor SIU women’s triple jump.

Fellow Bahamian native Dougie Palacious also nabbed a men’s triple jump win with a 15-meter leap. This is Palacious’ fifth-straight triple-jump victory.

Palacious credits the new SIU facility to his weekend performance.

“I love this track,” Palacious said. “This is a softer track, and (on) harder tracks we can get injured easier, so I can do a lot more training on this track.”

Senior J.C. Lambert followed up his March 23 record-breaking performance with two more event wins to continue his outdoor-season start.

Lambert first won the discus Friday and threw a personal best 50.86 meters. His heave pushed him on the SIU all-time list in the discus to ninth place.

He then earned his second Saturday win, this time in the hammer throw. Lambert’s throw traveled 12 feet better than second place at 65.91 meters.

His throw was just one inch shy of SIU’s all-time mark, set by himMarch 22-23 at the Vanderbilt Black and Gold meet.

Sophomore and indoor All-American Bradley Sauer finished third in the hammer throw with a personal-best 60.50-meter heave.

Sauer said the competition from his teammates pushes him to succeed and get better daily.

“We got J.C. who just set the Missouri Valley Conference record last week and we have three or four of us who are all neck-and-neck, and we are pushing each other every day to be better,” Sauer said.

The Salukis’ next meet is Saturday at Southern Missouri State University during the Joey Haines Invite meet Saturday in Cape Girardeau, Mo.