Marquette’s track and field athletes journeyed to Illinois and Iowa this past weekend to compete in two separate events. The Golden Eagles sent 42 athletes to compete in the one-day Benedictine Twilight Invitational in Lisle, Illinois Friday, while also sending 23 athletes to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Although there were many notable performances, the main event of the weekend involved junior high jumper Wally Ellenson, who hoped to finally out-jump rivals Bradley Adkins and Jacorian Duffield of Texas Tech. However, despite clearing a bar of 2.18 meters (7 x feet x 1.8 inches), Ellenson finished third behind Adkins and Duffield, the latter of which cleared a 2.25-meter bar for the win. Ellenson’s personal record still sits at a herculean 2.28 meters (7 x feet x 5.76 inches).
Even though everybody was looking for a broken school record on the high jump, the only record to break this weekend was on the track. After Kellie Greenwood set a Marquette record in the 5,000-meter run last week in California, sophomore distance runner Brittney Feivor broke it at the Drake Relays. Feivor’s time of 16:32.93 is less than two seconds faster than Greenwood’s record time. After standing for seven years, Marquette’s 5,000-meter record broke twice in as many weeks. This is also the fourth consecutive week Feivor posted a personal best in a distance event.
“The big record for Brittney was pretty exciting,” coach Bert Rogers told GoMarquette.com.
Another school record nearly fell in the women’s 1600-meter sprint medley, as Terica Harris, Cassy Goodrich, Anna Strong and Nicole Ethier collectively ran a 4:01.08, which is good enough for the second-fastest time in Marquette history. They were about six seconds off the first-place time and ended up finishing in sixth.
Of the combined 65 athletes that represented Marquette this weekend, only one of them achieved a first place finish. That distinction went to pole vaulter Nicole Jaffke, a sophomore from Libertyville, Ill. Jaffke notched a height of 3.64 meters (11-feet-11.31 inches) at the Benedictine Twilight to take home top billings for the Golden Eagles.
“As always, we came to compete hard,” Rogers told GoMarquette.com. “I’m proud of the way the team dealt with the elements and competed as hard as they could.”
Marquette will compete in the Dave Rankin Invitational on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, next Friday and Saturday. After that, the Big East Outdoor Championships awaits Marquette’s top athletes May 8-9 at Villanova.
