A little extra practice time and effort paid off in a big way for SIUC track and field senior Kelly French Saturday.

French led the Salukis with personal-best times in the mile and 3,000-meter run to move into the No. 5 spot in the school record books at the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Ind.

French placed third in the mile with a time of 4 minutes and 58.68 seconds and ran a career-best in the 3,000-meter run (10:02.85) for a third-place finish overall and second among college athletes. Both times also ranked fifth in school history.

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French attributes strenuous training to her successful weekend showing.

The training we’ve been doing and the coaching we’ve had the past few months has really helped, French said. The team has really come together well of late.

Women’s coach Don DeNoon said French’s endurance aided her times.

Both of Kelly’s performances were within an hour of each other, DeNoon said. She ran a lifetime-best in each event. It was just a super effort on her part.

French said she was equally pleased with her performance in each race.

I feel really good about it because I PR’d (personal record) in both, French said.

Other top finishers for the Salukis were sophomore Jenny Monaco, whose third-place finish in the 5,000-meter run (17:44.55) helped her maintain the No. 1 ranking in the Missouri Valley Conference.

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Senior Leah Steele finished third in the pole vault (9′ 2.25), and freshman Felicia Hill had a fifth-place finish in the high jump (5′ 5) and a ninth-place finish in the triple jump (36′ 11.5).

The Salukis finished eighth out of 14 teams with 43 points. Indiana University won the meet with 97 points, followed by the University of Kentucky (92.5), University of Georgia (92.5), Indiana State University (66.5) and Vanderbilt University, which rounded out the top five with a score of 61.

DeNoon said the quality of the competition was too much for the Salukis to handle.

It was very good competition, DeNoon said. Georgia, Kentucky and Indiana have had pretty powerful track programs for as long as I can remember, and they showed it.

With numerous losses already in the season, the men’s team added to the long list of injuries this weekend. Juniors Romante Archer and Elliot Young suffered the injury bug that has hampered the men’s team this season.

Archer, a sprinter for the Salukis, was forced to sit out due to a hamstring problem while Young pulled out of the high jump competition with shin splints.

Men’s coach Bill Cornell said he has never seen so many injuries on one team in a season.

You can just go on and on, Cornell said. The list just keeps growing each week. I’ve never had this many injuries before. We just have to hope they can recuperate and be ready for conference (Missouri Valley Conference meet) the 28th (of February).

To compound the problems, the men’s team also performed poorly at the Invitational with a ninth-place finish out of 14 teams.

We didn’t come together as a team this week, Cornell said. It was just very disappointing.

Leading the way for the Salukis was freshman Loren King with a second-place finish in the high jump (6′ 9.5). Sophomores Jeraldo Henry and Brad Bowers finished in the top four in the triple jump competition. Henry placed third (48′ 7.5), while Bowers placed fourth (47′ 7) in the competition.

Indiana University won the competition with a score of 107.5, followed by Kentucky (97), Eastern Illinois University (91) and Indiana University with 78.50 points. The Salukis finished with 32 points.

Cornell said he was not pleased with the Salukis finish, even with the injuries.

We were beaten by teams I didn’t really like getting beat by, Cornell said.

The men’s and women’s track and field team will play host to the McDonald’s/Saluki Invitational Friday and Saturday at the Recreation Center.