The track & field team finished strong on Saturday at the Jesse Owens Track Classic with two event wins and seven personal-best performances.
In Columbus, Ohio, Spartan juniors Alicia Evans and Jellisa Westney placed first and second in the women’s 200-meter dash.
Evans also got a runner-up finish on the women’s 400-meter dash. She posted a season-best of 55.20 seconds. Junior Lindsey Seymour ran the event in under a minute for the first time this season — in 58.58 seconds — placing 22nd.
MSU placed third and fourth in the women’s 100-meter dash. Evans finished in third, clocking a time of 11.75 seconds. Freshman Lauren Rose was in fourth, posting a time of 11.82 seconds — she ran the event for the first time this season.
“I was pleased, I felt like we had some decent momentum,” director of track & field/cross country Walt Drenth told msuspartans.com. “I thought we made progress. Overall, you want to see a good effort from start to finish and I thought we picked up some momentum today. We got a little more depth.”
In the women’s 4x400-meter relay, the MSU team — consisting of Evans, Westney, Rose and freshman Aubrey Wilberding — placed second overall, clocking a time of three minutes and 43.74 seconds.
The men’s team also got a runner-up finish in the same event. Junior Ross Parsons and sophomores Austin Sanders, Stephon Foster and David Washington posted a season-best time of three minutes and 11.77 seconds.
Individual athletes from MSU will be competing across the country at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, the GINA Relays in Hillsdale, Mich., and the Ashland University Alumni Open in Ashland, Ohio this coming weekend.
