The women’s track team’s freshmen may be new to Division I, but they were ready to run Saturday at the EIU Mega Meet in Lantz Field House. Behind the performance of the freshmen and returning athletes, the Panther women finished third out of seven teams.

Freshman sprinter and jumper Jenna Uhe was busy participating in the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump and triple jumps. While running back and forth between races and jumps, Uhe scored points in three of her four events, placing fifth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.33 seconds, eighth in the long and seventh in the triple.

Uhe does not mind being in four events.

“It makes the time go by faster,” she said.

Jessica Blondell is another freshman that preformed well in her multiple races Saturday. Blondell placed eighth in the 800-meter run and beat out Lisa Petty of Illinois-Chicago in a close final lap to take fourth in the mile with a time of 5 minutes 20.63 seconds.

Freshman Nicole Walcott, the top Eastern finisher in the shot put, threw 40 feet 1.5 inches. She said having a home meet this early helps the girls focus on how strong you can be the rest of the season.

Freshman Tricia Gaumer said she thinks her teammates have improved since the first meet and are becoming accustomed to competing at “the next level.”

Gaumer cleared 10’6″ in pole vault, the second highest Eastern vaulter, right behind sixth place finisher junior Nicolene Galas.

The Mega Meet featured good performances from the veterans as well.

Galas, a junior pole-vaulter, had a stress fracture in her foot and did not participate in the Early Bird Meet on Dec. 10. However, she led Eastern vaulters with a jump of 11′ after just missing 11’6″.

“You have to take everything inside of you and get yourself going,” Galas said. “I just do it like I do in practice.”

Sophomore distance runner Mallory Fellers also made a comeback at the meet. She suffered from an Achilles tendon injury last season that prevented her from competing.

Fellers said she is “happy to be able to compete this season.” She showed herself to be an asset to the team with her performances in the 800-meter and mile run, placing ninth and sixth, respectively.

Fellow distance runner, junior Nicole Flounders, made a different kind of comeback. She was tripped during the first half of the 1000-meter run and despite a badly track-burned knee, she managed to pick herself up and finish fourth with a time only seven seconds behind first place.

Flounders commented on the advantage running races with teammates like freshman Amy LeJuene provide during the longer races and Galas said that it is nice having the freshmen fill out the team this year.

Assistant coach Nate Davis said he was pleased with the way the meet went Saturday.

Women’s track and field head coach Mary Wallace echoed his remarks.

“Overall I’m pretty pleased. A lot of good solid performances today.”

She said the team is now ready to put things together, see where they are at, and work on their performances for next week.

“I feel like I’m improving on some things, but I have a lot to work on still,” Uhe said.