The University of Illinois Springfield track and field team competed at the GLVC Outdoor Track and Field Championships over the weekend. Highlights include four event titles by UIS men's track and field athletes that led them to a fourth place finish. UIS women's track and field finished ninth at the meet with nine points. 

Hayley Goebel started off competition for UIS on Thursday afternoon in the hammer throw. Her best mark of 40.60m landed her 13th in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Goebel's second of three throws was likely her farthest of the year, but landed just foul. 

Noah McIntyre, Matt Moler, and Chris Cherry then took on the preliminary round of the men's 1500 meter run, all three qualifying for the final. Breanna Chandler was the lone Prairie Star to run the women's 1500m, and qualified for the final as well.  The Thursday night championship event on the track was the 10,000 meter run. UIS fifth year distance runner Wyatt McIntyre, the 2022 10,000m runner-up, earned his first conference title in track and field when he ran a provisional mark of 29:58 to win by ovee 30 seconds. McIntyre was the GLVC Cross Country Champion in the fall, and was named the UIS Male Athlete of the Year last week. Cort Ross, the 2021 champion in the event, came in at 30:34 to earn a bronze medal. 

Jade Aubrey led three Prairie Stars in the women's 10,000m, finishing seventh to earn two points for the women's team. Freshman Emma Leahy came in just under 40 minutes for a 10,000m personal record, and sophomore Emma West rounded out the field for the Prairie Stars in ther 10,000m debut. 

Friday was a day of mostly preliminary rounds for UIS, as they competed in few field events and did not enter runners in the steeplechase. Daniel Amponsah and Elijah Martin competed in preliminary rounds of the sprints. Both runners ran personal best marks in their respective event but just missed making the finals. 

Chris Cherry, Matt Moler, and Breanna Chandler then ran prelims of the 800 meter run. Each Prairie Star ran strategically to advance to the final in a second event. Athletes who run both the 1500m and 800m must run one prelim on Thursday, followed by another prelim on Friday, before racing the finals of each event just over one hour apart on Saturday. 

Championship Saturday was led off by Hayley Goebel and Maggie George in the discus, as well as Jacob Hanna in the men's high jump. Hanna battled with the best of the conference, finishing fourth to score five points at the conference meet in just his second collegiate track meet. 

The Prairie Stars shined all afternoon on the track as the men's team earned three more event tiles and Breanna Chandler scored seven points on her own. The first track event for UIS was the men's 1500m where sophomore Chris Cherry won by six seconds in a GLVC Championship record time. Cherry's record breaks Noah McIntyre's record from the 2022 championship. Matt Moler finished second for eight points. 

Moler, Cherry, and Chandler then doubled back for the 800 meter final around eighty minutes later. Cherry and Moler flipped the script when Moler took first place and Cherry took second by just two hundreths of a second. It was Moler's first GLVC title after earning three silver medals in indoor and outdoor track combined this year. Chandler finished fourth in the women's final to just miss an All-GLVC spot. 

The temperature on the track rose in the late afternoon as it was time for the 5,000 meter run finals. The men's race started as a tight competition before stringing out over the next 15 minutes. McIntyre kept his lead, holding off two Missouri-St. Louis runners who would eventually finish in second and third. McIntyre completed the long distance sweep of the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races on the weekend. 

The men's team repeated their indoor championship feat when they finished in fourth place by competing in less than half of the events. UIS entered eight of the 22 events and scored in five. Moler and Cherry combined for 36 of the team's 72 points, and Wyatt McIntyre scored 20 on his own. 

Thursday Session
Women's Hammer Throw
Hayley Goebel- 40.60m, 13th Place

Men's 1500m Prelims
Noah McIntyre (Reigning Champion)- 3:57.49, 1st in Heat 1
Chris Cherry (Indoor Mile Champion)- 3:59.58, 1st in Heat 2
Matt Moler- 3:59.13, 4th in Heat 1

Women's 1500m Prelims
Breanna Chandler- 4:49.10, 3rd in Heat 2

Men's 10,000m Final
Wyatt McIntyre- 29:58.12, 1st Place (10 points), NCAA Provisional
Cort Ross- 30:29.81, 3rd Place (6 points)
Noah Tegeler- 31:40.85, 10th Place

Women's 10,000m Final
Jade Aubrey- 38:14.47, 7th Place (2 points)
Emma Leahy-39:59.96, 13th Place
Emma West- 40:45.01, 17th Place

Friday Session
Women's Shot Put
Hayley Goebel- 10.11m

Men's 100m Dash Prelims
Daniel Amponsah- 11.17, 11th Place

Men's 800m Run Prelims
Chris Cherry- 1:55.62, 1st in Heat 2
Matt Moler- 1:55.90, 1st in Heat 1
Cayden Kirkham- 2:03.81

Women's 800m Run Prelims
Breanna Chandler- 2:22.1, 3rd in Heat 1

Men's 200m Dash Prelims
Elijah Martin- 23.29, 13th Place

Saturday Session
Women's Discus Throw
Hayley Goebel- 33.16m
Maggie George- 24.56m

Men's High Jump
Jacob Hanna- 1.99m, 4th Place (5 points)

Women's Javelin Throw
Ellie Shonkwiler- 26.86m

Men's 1500m Run Final
Chris Cherry- 3:45.25, 1st Place (10 points), NCAA DII Provisional, GLVC Record
Matt Moler- 3:51.86, 2nd Place (8 points)
Noah McIntyre- 4:03.90, 9th Place

Women's 1500m Run Final
Breanna Chandler- 4:48.73, 7th Place (2 points)

Men's 800m Run Final
Matt Moler- 1:53.32, 1st Place (10 points)
Chris Cherry- 1:53.34. 2nd Place (8 points)

Women's 800m Run Final
Breanna Chandler- 2:20.14, 4th Place (5 points)

Men's 5,000m Run Final
Wyatt McIntyre- 14:55.29, 1st Place (10 points)
Cort Ross- 15:08.09, 4th Place (5 points)
Noah McIntyre- 15:39.75, 9th Place
Noah Tegeler- 15:48.60, 12th Place

Women's 5,000m Run Final
Jade Aubrey- 19:23.87, 13th Place
Jordan Serrahn- 19:31.93, 14th Place

Men's 4x400 Relay
Zach Panek, Cayden Kirkham, Ryan Ames, Spencer Mauch- 3:34.34, 9th Place

Stay tuned as the national championship fields will be announced next week. Chris Cherry is currently 17th in the 10,000m and 19th in the 1500m run. Any competition that occurs next weekend will be counted on the NCAA DII performance list prior to the NCAA DII Track and Field Championship.