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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Track teams open the season with a victory

Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics
Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics

In their first action of 2014, the women’s track and field team defeated UW-Milwaukee 84-49 and the men’s team defeated Illinois-Chicago 86-32 and lost to Milwaukee 78-55.

The meet was hosted by UW-Milwaukee Friday night. Illinois-Chicago only competed in the men’s events while their women’s team competed at a different meet.

For the women’s side, the team performed well across the board. Veterans gave strong performances in the sprints and field events, while underclassmen dominated the long-distance events.

Freshman Alison Parker (5:03.66) and sophomore Kayla Spencer (5:07.65) took first and second in the mile, respectively. Freshman Brittney Feivor placed first in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:15.77. Juniors Elisia Meyle, Rebecca Pachuta and Hannah Frett rounded out the top four.

On the field, freshman Omo Tseumah placed first in the high jump for the second consecutive meet with a height of 5 feet, 6 inches. Teammates sophomore Tatyana Pashibin and freshman Bridget Bodee took second and third, respectively.

Senior Carlye Schuh had some of the best performances of the day, finishing first in the long jump (5.91 meters) and triple jump (12.08 meters) and second in the 60-meter dash.

“(The women) definitely had good meets,” coach Bert Rogers said. “The first early (meet), it’s less about getting marks as it is about scoring more points than the other team and I thought the ladies really stepped up and there’s lot of good stuff to build on.”

The men’s team, plagued by early season injuries, competed without many of its key scorers, especially freshman jumper Dwayne Dash, who was out with a hamstring injury.

“We definitely have some pretty athletic guys that were out,” Rogers said. “I don’t know if it would have helped us win, but it would have helped.”

On the track, the men only placed first in one event. Senior Spencer Agnew took first by a little more than a second in the mile run with a time of 4:15.35. Illinois-Chicago also only won only one track event while Milwaukee dominated with five first place finishes.

The men performed better on the field, yet still only pulled out three first place finishes; one in the pole vault event, which Illinois-Chicago and Milwaukee did not compete in. Redshirt junior Bret Hardin’s weight throw of 61 feet, 9 ¾ inches not only earned first place in the event but is also the third best distance in program history.

Despite the early season injuries, Rogers saw many positives for the team.

“There was a lot of good stuff in the men’s side to build on, but just not quite enough to get it done on the team’s score side of things for the first meet of the year, but now it’s on to the next one,” Rogers said.

With the season officially in full swing, both teams will compete in the Badger Elite Invitational in Madison this weekend.

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