Eastern Illinois University’s outdoor track and field team will participate in the Indiana State Gibson Invite in Terre Haute, beginning Thursday, April 16. The Panthers are set for their fourth meet of the outdoor season.
The event schedule includes the women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon starting Thursday morning and concluding Friday. Field events on Friday begin at noon Eastern Time with the hammer throw, while running events start at 6 p.m. with the steeplechase. Saturday’s competition starts with field events at 11:30 a.m., followed by running events at noon.
Last week, Eastern Illinois athletes secured ten first-place finishes at the Illinois Deca-Jam meet, which also featured five performances ranking among EIU’s all-time top ten marks. Several athletes have earned notable rankings entering this week’s competition: Ashlyn Denney leads the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) in the women’s 800 meters; Machi Nelson is first in men’s long jump; Alex Stout tops men’s shot put; and Shawn Lacy leads men’s javelin. Nelson is ranked 31st in NCAA West Region for long jump, while Lacy holds 46th place regionally for javelin.
Lacy won both the men’s 100 meter dash and javelin last weekend, with his javelin throw of 201 feet, five inches marking eighth best in school history. Analena Peterson claimed victory in the women’s 200 meter run with a time of 24.28 seconds—also eighth best all-time—and anchored a winning relay team that recorded EIU’s third fastest time ever.
Other individual victories included Rylea Borgic (women’s steeplechase), Tyler Miller (men’s 400 hurdles), Devin Johnston (women’s 400 meters), Ayden Cothern (men’s 200 meters), Maliek Bush (men’s long jump), and Marco Reynolds (women’s discus). Layla Bonilla achieved eighth best triple jump mark in school history, while Stout posted ninth best all-time hammer throw.
