SIU men’s track and field junior Adam Judge broke his own school record in the hammer throw and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a toss of 61.08 meters during the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays at the University of Texas in Austin this weekend.

His toss placed him fourth overall in the field, which featured the top track and field teams in the nation.

I set a personal best and it was my first time throwing the hammer in a while because of the weather here, Judge said. It was good but I have a lot of work to do.

Advertisement

Only half of the men’s team competed in Texas, while the other half traveled with the women to compete in the Southeast Missouri State All Sport Relays.

The men in Texas performed well, but did not have the results they were aiming for. With hundreds of competitors all vying for the top spot, there could only be one winner and the Salukis were unable to clinch any of the honors.

Texas was a good trip in different ways, said men’s head coach Cameron Wright. We thought we would do better than we did, but we got to see how the big guys in the country compete.

Wright said even though the men did not do all that well he is proud that they competed and learned from other athletes.

The Salukis competed in the 4×100 meter relay where they placed 27th with a time of 41.3.

Individually, Jeff Young competed in the 110m hurdles with a sixth-place finish at 14.13. Kevin Mills, Marvin Primo and Willie Davis ran in the 100m dash, finishing with times of 10.96, 11.11 and 11.44 respectively.

Eli Baker set a personal best in the 3,000m steeplechase, coming in 10th with a time of 9:23.86 and Trapper Pressler ran the 10,000m run, finishing 13th at 33:13.43.

Advertisement*

If we want to be the best, we need to compete with the best and eventually beat the best, Wright said.

At the All Sport Relays, the men and women competed for individual team titles as well as a combined title.

The men finished sixth, with the women coming in fourth overall. Combined, the teams took fifth place out of six teams.

The top performances of the weekend came from junior Latrice Gray, sophomores Korto Dunbar and Doron Giat and freshmen Mariann Ahuna and Kelsey Toussaint.

Gray completed the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 7 inches, while Toussaint captured the 200m dash in 25.07. Dunbar won the 100m hurdles in 14.49, Giat took the 1,500m run with his season best of 3:56.46 and with a distance of 39 feet 10 1/2 inches, Ahuna won the triple jump.

I got first, but I was not satisfied with my distance, Ahuna said. I just took it as another practice meet.

The Salukis had several top-five performances from both the men and women. The women’s 4×100 relay team placed second with a time of 47.53.

Second-place showings were garnered by Shaneka Williams in the 100m dash with a time of 12.31 and Orane Morgan in the 800m run in 1:54.97.

Paul Whittaker took third in the high jump at 6 feet 5 inches and another third came from Marian Appiah-Kubi in the 400m dash at 56.58. A fourth-place showing came from Erin Simone in the 5,000m run with a time of 19:11.43.

After a two-week hiatus from competing, the women showed great athletic ability while finishing with several top-10 performances.

I was pleased, women’s head coach Connie Price-Smith said. Everyone who competed did a good job.

Reporter Samantha Robinson can be reached at [email protected]