Ukabam beats own SIU shot put record

If there was ever any doubt that the SIU track teams could excel against strong competition, it was erased this weekend at the Hoosier Relays in Bloomington, Ind.

The Salukis had one NCAA automatic qualifier and three provisional qualifiers along with five first-place finishes.

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“It was really great for us to come in and do that,” head coach Connie Price-Smith said. “We had a lot of great performances.”

Junior Amarachi Ukabam continued her already remarkable, record-breaking season with a sweep of the weight-throw and shot put. Ukabam automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in the shot put while re-breaking her own SIU record and the Missouri Valley Conference record.

Ukabam wasn’t the only Saluki making noise on the women’s team. In fact, the women claimed the top six spots in the weight throw, with second place finisher, senior Venisha Williams, throwing an NCAA provisional qualifying toss.

Another strong women’s field performance was senior triple jumper Inna Turevsky, who jumped a second-place distance of 11.67m.

In the men’s field events, senior Mark Milleville, who placed fourth in the weight throw with a distance of 18.64m, tossed a provisional qualifying throw of 19.91m in the preliminary round.

“It’s a little relief, but I was looking for more than just provisional,” Milleville said.

Joining Milleville as a provisional NCAA qualifier is high jumper Freddy Rule.

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“You can never guess what you’re going to jump, you just have to go out there and hope for the best.” Rule said.

It turns out hoping helped Rule’s hopping as he leaped his way into first place with a jump of 2.17m, which translates into 7ft 1 1/2in.

In the running events, SIU placed 10 top-five finishers, including two victories. In the 600-meter run, Ty-Nica Davis ran one minute, thirty-three seconds, which was good enough for first place. Kelsey Toussaint and Sherlenia Green finished the 400 third and fifth, respectively. The women’s 4×400 relay team came up short to Indiana, though, finishing second by just eight-hundredths of a second.

In the men’s 3k, Eli Baker paced himself to a second-place finish, and fellow senior Joe Byrne had a strong fifth-place run. In the women’s 3k, sophomore Brittani Christensen outlasted the competition and earned herself a first-place finish.

“I am pleased overall with everything. They came out and competed really, really well,” Price-Smith said.