Saluki track and field hits ground running

Saluki track and field hits ground running

By Aaron Graff

Outdoor track and field doesn’t always mean warm weather and ideal conditions to compete, but this didn’t stop one Saluki from having a record-breaking performance.

The Salukis hosted their first outdoor track and field meet of the season during the weekend. Friday’s temperatures were in the high 50s, but Saturday had temperatures in the low 40s, and felt like the high 30s.

However, the cold weather didn’t stop the Salukis from doing well, proven with SIU winning 11 events. The men’s team won its meet, while the women finished second out of seven schools.

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Coach Connie Price-Smith said Saturday’s weather wasn’t ideal, but she was hoping the team would be close to the marks it hit at the end of the indoor season.

“It’s part of outdoor track and field,” Price-Smith said. “You never know what you’re going to get.”

With a throw of 19.12 meters, sophomore thrower Josh Freeman broke the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor record and the school record, the latter of which was formerly held by throws coach John Smith. Freeman also broke Smith’s indoor school shot put record earlier this season.

“It’s about time,” Smith said, noting that his records were set 30 years ago. “It’s been there too long.”

Freeman said Smith told him to throw roughly 19 meters in order to break the school record. However, Freeman forgot about it by the time he was throwing.

“To open like this is huge,” Freeman said. “Normally I wouldn’t see these throws until mid-season. It’s all due to the heavy training we do at the beginning of the season.”

Freeman said Smith told him he broke both records right after his event. Freeman said he then asked Smith what he could do to throw farther.

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Freeman said he expected to break the record later this season, but wasn’t expecting to this soon with the cold weather. Because of the rain the day before, the area was wet and muddy.

“Throwing in this weather was terrible,” Freeman said. “It was wet, cold and the wind was blowing. We really couldn’t get away from it. If the weather had been warmer, I could have thrown closer to my indoor personal record.”

Freeman also set his PR for the hammer throw with a distance of 49.28 meters. Junior Curtis Wideman won the event with a mark of 63.83 meters. Wideman also won the discus throw with a mark of 53.00 meters.

Junior distance runner Krista Menghini won the 3,000-meter steeplechase, an obstacle-course race where runners must jump over water every lap. Her time was 11:01.67. Menghini said she wasn’t happy with her time, but she was happy to win for the Salukis. She stuck every landing, but some of her competition weren’t as lucky.

“A lot of times people get stopped in the water jump and I try to keep moving through,” Menghini said. “When there are people behind me stopping or falling, it’s definitely an advantage.”

Junior distance runner Sadie Darnell broke the 3,000-meter steeplechase record in 2013 with a time of 10:32.84 at the MVC championships. She was a scratch from the event because she was sick.

Senior distance runner Zach Dahleen won the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:41.18. He said cross-country coach Matt Sparks had him work on his finish, and his last lap was his fastest. Dahleen said he typically runs a mile at four minutes, and he thinks he can take off seven to eight seconds by the end of the outdoor season.

“In the mile, my goal is always under four minutes,” Dahleen said.

The Saluki jumps team won a total of four events, including three from freshmen, including Kyle Landon. Landon won the high jump in the indoor conference championships.

The sprinting team did not win any events, but junior Lauren Cheadle finished the 100-meter dash in second with a time of 12.10 seconds.

The Salukis travel to Eastern Illinois University Friday for the Big Blue Classic.

Aaron Graff can be contacted at [email protected], @Aarongraff_DE or 536-3311 ext. 269

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