BLOOMINGTON, IL … The UIS Women's Track Team started the season at the Illinois Wesleyan First Chance Meet on Saturday and picked up where they left off at the end of the season by turning in two school records. On top of that, the team added several personal bests for the returning members as well as strong performances from the freshmen running their first collegiate meet.
 
Leading the way for the ladies was Lexi Yoggerst who won her section of the 600m run and placed fifth overall en route to breaking the UIS school record in the event with a time of 1:42.44.  The old mark was held by teammate Krissy Finley set last year at the same meet (1:44.95).  Yoggerst was also part of the 4 x 400m relay team that also won their section of the event and placed sixth overall.  The team of Yoggerst, Finley, Maddie Logsdon, and Haley Kerpan combined to run 4:24.42, improving on the school record set last winter at the GLVC Indoor Championships (4:31.39)  That team included Yoggerst, Logsdon, Aeriel Storey, and Christine Noppenberger.
 
Finley lead a group of seven Prairie Stars in the mile run with a second place finish with a time of 5:31.73.  Freshman Kerpan placed 4th in 5:41.60, followed by Alexandria Quarton in 5th with a time of 5:43.27.  Seventh place finisher Olivia Rohr (5:51.13) and eighth place finisher Kelsey Cleary (5:52.88) closed out the ladies that ran under 6:00 in the field of 14 runners.
 
Aeriel Story was second in her section of the 200m dash and 10th overall in the field of 40 runners.  Her time of 28.91 broke the indoor school record of 30.04 set by teammate LeeNaya Brewer last year.
 
The final school record of the day was established by Kaitlin Zimmerman in the shot put.  She finished 13th overall in the field of 25 throwers with a toss of 9.69m (31' 9.5").
 
The UIS Ladies placed fourth as a team with a total of 29 points in the field of nine schools.  Washington U of St Louis won the meet with 118 over host Illinois Wesleyan's 115 points.
 
Coach Mike De Witt had these thoughts on the first meet of the season:  "This was an excellent first meet of the season for several reasons, including the strong competitive efforts across the team.  Everyone went to the starting line with a good focus and energy and it showed by the nice job we did of moving past runners in the second half of the races.  It was also a lot of fun to see UIS at the front of races and winning sections of their events.  Our team is comprised of ladies that have won races in high school and are working to do the same as collegiate runners.  We have also talked about how much stronger we are as a whole and when anyone, much less most of the team, can come to an early December meet and race at personal best and school record level off of fall training and not very specific event training, it shows that we are set for a lot of good meets when we get back in January."  
 
The next meet on the schedule for the ladies will be on January 14th at Lewis.