This past Saturday, the SLU track team competed at Eastern Illinois University’s John Craft Invitational. The team this year is looking strong and continues to improve as the season progresses. This weekend, both the men’s and women’s teams each earned fourth place overall in the competition with bold performances from all involved.

SLU boasted nine top-five finishes by the women including second and third place finishes in the mile by Hannah Pierson (5:09.53) and Katie Anderson (5:11.64). The women also found success on the field, soaring to a fifth-place finish by Allyson Stanley in the high jump (4’ 9.75”), and launching to another fifth place showing in the shot put by Alia Hayes (40’ 5.5”).

The men found success as well in the middle distance with a handful of second- place finishes by Tyler Dingle (51.92) in the 400 meters, Josh Freivogel (1:24.99) in the 600 meters, and Jon Schaffer (1:57.07) in the 800 meters. Ethan Erusha also tied for second on the high jump reaching heights of 6’ 5.5” and earning 10 points for the Billikens in the overall standings for the day.

The indoor season has provided tough challenges for the Billikens so far with a new workout regimen aimed to better prepare both the track and field athletes for the upcoming district indoor meet next month at Rhode Island. “Everybody’s getting really excited to face A-10 teams and we’re getting ready to lock down and represent SLU the best we can,” said high jumper Alex Oleson. “We have a team that really cares about team success as a whole, and hopefully that is represented in the coming meets.”