The men's and women's outdoor track and field teams earned four first-place finishes at the Mike Poehlein Invitational Saturday.

"I think that we just had better performances," said head coach Dave Uhrich. "Last week everybody was still a bit rusty because they hadn't had a meet in a few weeks. It was a nice progression."

Although the cloudy and cool weather presented an obstacle on Saturday, athletes still performed at top quality. Junior Michaela Courtney secured first place and set a new school record at 16:47.66 in the 5,000-meter run.

"I had never run the 5K before," Courtney said. "I was just hoping to run under 17 minutes, so I was happy."

Courtney also qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships with her time.

"I thought that she was going to be able to do that," Uhrich said. "But the hardest part was that there was no competition. She won the race by over a minute and she had to do it all by herself. That made it harder."

Marquette also secured first-place finishes in other events. Sophomore Jed Burey and junior Kristina Malin won at 800-meters with times of 1:55.29 and 2:13.06 respectively. Sophomore Cassie Peller earned victory in the 1500m with a time of 4:35.84.

After top finishes at the Mike Poehlein Invitational, Uhrich hopes that Marquette will continue to progress as the energy level increases at meets.