Carbondale Reporter

Southern Illinois Track and Field began its outdoor season with a strong performance at the Ole Miss Classic in Oxford, Mississippi. Director of Track and Field Richard Jones expressed satisfaction with the season opener, stating, "The ability to open up the season with good weather and competition helped, and now that we have opened up, we can look to making improvements and sharpening up over the next few weeks."

On the first day of competition, Andre Jackson II excelled in the 200m dash with a record time of 21.23 seconds. Leah Thames also set a personal best in the 200m dash with a time of 24.05 seconds, placing her eighth in school history for the event. Na'Kyrah Cooks finished second in the long jump with a distance of 5.78 meters.

Day two saw continued success for Southern Illinois. The women's 4x100 relay team secured victory with a time of 45.27 seconds, marking them third in school history for this event. Jadon Robertson won the men's 110m hurdles at 14.60 seconds, closely followed by Christian Coleman at 14.62 seconds.

Jumps coach Jacob Brydson commented on their performance: "It was nice for our guys to be back over 10 hurdles... it was a good first race from a technical execution standpoint and Jadon was able to eek one out over Christian today."

Keyann Wilson took second place in the women's 100m dash, while Nadir Langston placed second in the men's 400m hurdles. Weston Jokerst achieved a personal best in the men's 3000m event with an impressive time of 8:45.63.

Distance Coach Angelina Ramos praised Jokerst's endurance: "Very confident Weston can hold that pace for the 5K given he ran the 3K with less than 30 minutes after an outdoor personal best of 1:54 in the 800m race."

In relay events, Teanna Bell, Leah Thames, Vashti Grey, and Salisa Palmer finished second in the women's 4x400 relay. The men's team comprising Nadir Langston, Andre Jackson II, Christian Donatelli, and Xavier Preston came third.

Other notable performances included Kyan Bell's third-place finish in shot put and several athletes achieving personal bests across various events.

The Salukis will next compete at the WashU Distance Carnival on March 28th in St. Louis.