Top of the Twilight
Track teams win in home opener
Jacob Boone
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: Sports
The SIUE men's and women's track and field teams had the opportunity to run in front of their home fans Saturday in the SIUE Twilight Classic and made the most of it as each team won the meet.
The SIUE men won the meet with 150 points and the SIUE women won with 164 points.
"We had a lot of good performances," SIUE Head Coach David Astrauskas said. "It's always nice to have good performances on your own track."
The closest team to the men was Eastern Illinois University with 112.5 points.
Senior Kyle Rose said the team stuck to what it has done all season.
"We were excited about finally getting the chance to perform in front of our home crowd," Rose said, "and I think pretty much everybody across the board did what we've been doing all year and that's coming up with big performances when we needed to."
Rose turned in another strong performance in the 400-meter dash. Rose won the event with a time of 46.38 seconds, just missing his career best.
"To run 46.38 in April, it's showing where my fitness level is … I'm ahead of schedule I think," Rose said.
The Cougars also took second and third place in the event as senior Chris Wright and junior Chris Littleton turned in times of 48.02 and 48.88 respectively.
"We're all very competitive," Rose said. "We're all good friends so there's a lot of trash talking about who's going to beat who when it comes down to a meet so we all are running out there trying to beat each other and honestly trying to beat the other schools too."
Astrauskas said he was also pleased with freshman Brian Bishop in the discus. Bishop placed second in the event with a throw of 168 feet, 7 inches. Astrauskas said Bishop has also qualified for the 2008 Junior National Meet in Columbus in June.
"He's one of the top juniors in the country and that was really an impressive performance," Astrauskas said.
The men's team also received wins from junior Nick Schaecher in the high jump, junior Scott Block in the discus, the 400-meter relay, sophomore Jeremy Puckett in the 400-meter hurdles and in the 1,600-meter relay.
The SIUE men won the meet with 150 points and the SIUE women won with 164 points.
"We had a lot of good performances," SIUE Head Coach David Astrauskas said. "It's always nice to have good performances on your own track."
The closest team to the men was Eastern Illinois University with 112.5 points.
Senior Kyle Rose said the team stuck to what it has done all season.
"We were excited about finally getting the chance to perform in front of our home crowd," Rose said, "and I think pretty much everybody across the board did what we've been doing all year and that's coming up with big performances when we needed to."
Rose turned in another strong performance in the 400-meter dash. Rose won the event with a time of 46.38 seconds, just missing his career best.
"To run 46.38 in April, it's showing where my fitness level is … I'm ahead of schedule I think," Rose said.
The Cougars also took second and third place in the event as senior Chris Wright and junior Chris Littleton turned in times of 48.02 and 48.88 respectively.
"We're all very competitive," Rose said. "We're all good friends so there's a lot of trash talking about who's going to beat who when it comes down to a meet so we all are running out there trying to beat each other and honestly trying to beat the other schools too."
Astrauskas said he was also pleased with freshman Brian Bishop in the discus. Bishop placed second in the event with a throw of 168 feet, 7 inches. Astrauskas said Bishop has also qualified for the 2008 Junior National Meet in Columbus in June.
"He's one of the top juniors in the country and that was really an impressive performance," Astrauskas said.
The men's team also received wins from junior Nick Schaecher in the high jump, junior Scott Block in the discus, the 400-meter relay, sophomore Jeremy Puckett in the 400-meter hurdles and in the 1,600-meter relay.
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