MEMPHIS, TN --- The UIS women's track team competed in their first "full team" outdoor track meet ever this past weekend at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN.   The team has run an indoor season the past two years, but last spring only ran a short meet schedule with a handful of athletes, this meet marked a first full roster outdoor meet.
 
The Rhodes College Invitational hosted 28 schools across seven states, including eight NCAA Division I programs as well as six more NCAA Division II programs. The other half of the field included NCAA Division III and NAIA Programs.  The meet was non scored as well.
 
Leading the way for the Prairie Stars was Krissy Finley (Soph, Rochester) who placed fifth in the mile run with a time of 5:12.03, a personal best improvement by nine seconds from indoor season.  She was the second Non-Division I finisher as well.  (In the following race recaps the Non-Division I places will be noted in parentheses).  Olivia Rohr placed 24th (8th) with a time of 5:37.25 in the mile as well.  There were a total of 47 runners in the event.
 
Lexi Yoggerst (Fr, Riverston) placed 7th (3rd) in the 400m dash with a personal best of 0:59.24 in the field of 33 runners.  Maddie Logsdon (Soph, New Berlin) placed 15th (8th) in her first ever attempt at the javelin throw with a distance of 81'11" (24.97m) in the field of 36 throwers.
 
Aeriel Storey (Soph, Peoria Heights) broke two of her school records that she set last spring with a time of 13.24 in the 100m dash good for 30th place (16th) of 41 sprinters and came back to run 0:27.85 in the 200m dash, good for 34th place (17th) of 57 sprinters.  Her previous bests were 13.85 and 28.08.
 
Other first time contested school records included Alexandria Quarton (Fr, Litchfield) running the 5000m in 20:47.76 good for 52nd place of 66 runners.  LeeNaya Brewer (Fr, University, Bloomington) threw 28' 7" (8.71m) in the shot put good for 31st of 46 throwers.  The 4x800m relay team of Logsdon, Rachael Crowley (So, Glenwood), Hannah Roberts (Fr, SHG), and Christine Noppenberger (Soph, Peotone) placed sixth and ran a time of 11:21.78.
 
Coach Mike De Witt commented on the Prairie Stars first meet of the outdoor season: "The ladies had a good meet and it was fun to have the men's team competing.  It gave both groups a lot of positive energy.  It was great to see the ladies competing to the front of the FAST Sections of the field as both Krissy Finley and Lexi Yoggerst ran strong races against predominately Division I competition.  Across the team the ladies either race personal bests or were right at their best indoor efforts from a month ago.  We are off to an exceptional start and the team is doing a great job of learning how to compete in races, which is already leading to fast times, but will help even more as the season ramps up and the competition for Conference spots is on the line."