Indiana women’s track and field traveled down to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete in the Louisville Invitational over the weekend. The Louisville Invitational was a smaller meet with only six colleges competing, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Purdue.
Although it was a small meet, head Coach Ron Helmer said the Hoosiers competed well.
“It was encouraging to see that the work that we’ve done is starting to result in good performances,” Helmer said.
A majority of the competition occurred Saturday afternoon, but the meet began on Friday afternoon with the hammer and javelin throw.
In the women’s javelin throw, freshman Makayla Hunter started the weekend with a win, launching the javelin with a throw of 44.36 meters. Sophomore Shanna Esters also competed and finished in fourth place with her throw of 30.12 meters.
Related: [Indiana men’s track and field commands Louisville Invitational with six first-place finishes]
Freshman Jayden Ulrich made her hammer throw debut with a throw of 45.87 meters to take seventh place in the event.
On Saturday, Indiana started with a 1-2 finish in the women’s shot put. Junior Madison Pollard took home the victory with a heave of 17.17 meters and freshman Jayden Ulrich followed behind to take second place with her throw of 16.73 meters.
Ulrich and Pollard also competed in the women’s discus throw and had another strong finish. Ulrich finished in third place with a throw of 49.11 meters and Pollard ended up right behind in fourth place with her throw of 48.36 meters.
Sophomore Mahogany Jenkins competed in the women’s high jump and finished in second place with her 1.75-meter jump.
In the women’s long jump, junior Nichole Flowers landed on the podium in third place with a leap of 5.84 meters.
To kick off the track action, freshman Elizabeth Stanhope finished in sixth place in the women’s 1500-meter run with a time of 4:34.78. Sophomore Alyssa Skorge ran the 1500-meter at 4:49.88 to finish in 17th place.
Sophomore Morgan Snow has been dominating the outdoor season by setting personal records in either the 400-meter dash or the 200-meter dash three weekends in a row. She continued her streak Saturday by setting two new personal records in both the 400-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.
Related: [Indiana women’s track and field records successful split-meet weekend]
In the 400-meter dash, Snow took home first place with a time of 53.72 seconds, smashing her old personal record by .19 of a second. Snow brought home another victory in the 200-meter dash by crossing the finish line with a time of 23.98 seconds to beat her old personal record by 0.12 of a second.
“I just feel like myself again,” Snow said. “Because I’m PR-ing, I keep moving up in the Big Ten region, so I think that I’m going to end up running at the regional meet which is really good for me.”
Indiana set another record in the women’s 800-meter run thanks to senior Kelly Mindak. Mindak finished in first place with a time of 2:06.62 and set a meet record in the process.
Sophomore Maria Anderson competed in her first 400-meter hurdle race and finished with a time of 1:02.82 to bring home second place.
Freshman Phoebe Bates was the lone Hoosier in the women’s 3000-meter run and performed well, finishing in second place with a time of 10:10.20.
In the final race of the Invitational, Indiana took home another victory in the women’s 4x400-meter run. The Indiana team consisted of Anderson, Snow, senior Natalie Price and sophomore Shynae Deas. They finished in first place with a time of 3:46.25.
Next weekend Indiana returns home and Coach Helmer said he hopes the team can take advantage of the home environment.
“Next week, at home, the promise looks to be great weather and better competition,” Helmer said. “I think taking advantage of that to create some higher numbers to go into the Big Ten Championships (in a few weeks) with a better opportunity to score points.”
Indiana next competes in the Indiana Invitational on April 22-23 in Bloomington, Indiana.
