SIU claims all but two against SLU

By Brent Meske

The SIU track and field teams both started the season with wins Saturday at the Saluki Fast Start.

In doing so, the Salukis won 22 of 24 events against Saint Louis University.

Freshman pole-vaulter Lindsey Murray and senior weight thrower Sophia Lozano led the Saluki women.

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Murray won the women’s pole vault with a jump of 13 feet, 2 inches. Her jump set an indoor school record, beating the previous mark of 13 feet, 1 inch set by Miracle Thompson in 2010.

Murray said her goal was to set the school record, so now she is only focused on beating her personal records every meet.

Pole vault coach Brian Porter said he was impressed with Murray’s ability to perform under pressure.

“She had to go down to her third attempt and cleared it no problem,” he said. “It was a statement for her and the team.”

Lozano won the women’s weight throw with a throw of 70 feet, 9 inches. She became only the fifth woman in SIU history to eclipse more than 70 feet in the weight throw.

“My entire goal for the start of the season was to qualify for nationals early,” she said. “Now my dream is to hit 74 feet and ultimately become an All-American.”

All-American high jumper sophomore Kyle Landon won the men’s high jump with a height of 7-feet, 2-inches.

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Although Lozano and Landon will not know if they qualified for the indoor nationals until the end of the season, their marks would have qualified last year.

Lozano’s throw would have been fifth best at last year’s indoor national championships and Landon’s jump would have tied for fifth best.

The Salukis won the remainder of the field events and carried the momentum into the running events, by winning 10 of the 12.

The only events the Salukis did not win was the women’s one-mile and women’s 400-meter races.

In the one-mile race, freshman Hillary Merrill finished fifth, with a time of 5:40.12, more than 20 seconds behind the winner. Saint Louis senior Kayla Snyder won the event with a time of 5:13.39.

Merrill set her personal record in the race, which previously was 5:55.00.

Freshman Alicia Reed finished second in the 400-meter race with a time of 58.26, less than three-hundredths of a second behind the winner. Saint Louis sophomore Hannah Rohde won the event with a time of 58.03.

The Salukis do not have any meets during winter break and compete Jan. 16-17 at the Kentucky Invitational.

Brent Meske can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brentmeskeDE.

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