David over Goliath. Buster Douglas’s knockout of Mike Tyson. SIUC women’s track and field victory Saturday.

The Saluki women pulled off a major upset rivaling some of the world’s best, while the men’s team finished in second place out of 10 teams in the annual Saluki Boosters Track and Field Invitational at the Recreation Center Saturday.

Women’s coach Don DeNoon was ecstatic with his team’s upset victory. He originally hoped for a fourth- or fifth-place finish.

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This was very much an upset, DeNoon said. I thought we might be able to score 60 points in the meet, and we ended up with 100.

The Salukis held off a group of competitors including Georgia Tech University with 89 points, Southeast Missouri State University (81) and Mississippi State University (79).

Led by a strong showing in the field events, the women handled a balanced attack of opposing sprinters to claim victory.

Everyone else divided their sprints up, and we scored big in the field events, DeNoon said. It showed the comprehensiveness of our program; we picked up points where we had to.

The Salukis picked up 18 points in the 20-pound weight throw with freshman Caryn Poliquin’s first-place toss of 50 feet, 10.75 inches and senior Amy Stearns’ second-place toss (48′ 7.25).

Freshman Felicia Hill finished first in the high jump (5′ 7.25) to earn 10 points, and the women’s pole vaulters scored 25 points, led by senior Leah Steele’s first-place finish (7′ 11.50).

Steele said the new addition of the women’s pole vault helped the Salukis claim of victory.

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The pole vault is new for the women, so there wasn’t many competitors, Steele said. We weren’t sure how we’d do. We really didn’t have any expectations, but this meet will really give us a boost for the rest of the season.

The men’s meet came down to the final event to determine the victor the triple jump. SIUC senior Sam Rone won the event (49′ 3), but Mississippi State finished second and third, which was good enough to earn an eight-point victory, 87-79.

The men’s team made a strong showing despite competing without its top jumpers.

Senior long jumper Orlando McKee had to sit out due to a sore foot, while high jumpers senior Neophytos Kalogerou (out for season with a torn Achilles tendon) and freshman Loren King (sprained ankle) also were unable to compete.

Men’s coach Bill Cornell said the losses of his best jumpers forced everyone else to step up.

We can look and see why we didn’t win; our top high jumper [Kalogerou] is out and our second best high jumper [King] sprained his ankle, Cornell said. We have quite a few aches and pains considering we’ve only been back from Christmas break for one week.

Rone was the lone Saluki individual winner, but SIUC also received a solid performance from senior Joseph Parks with second-place finishes in the 5,000-meter run (15:00) and the 3,000-meter run (8:38.80). Sophomore Noam Darsa finished in third place in the 1,000-meter run (2:30.62) for the Salukis.

Freshman sprinter Peter Forder ran an inspired, come-from- behind 200-meter race for a first-place finish in his heat and a third-place finish overall (23.04).

Forder said the indoor track is a change for him, but his race strategy remains the same.

That’s my race, to kick in at the end, Forder said. I think I’ll be able to run better later in the year because this is the first year I’ve ran on an indoor track.

The Salukis will return to action Saturday on the road at the Purdue Invitational in West Lafayette, Ind.