Eastern track and field athletes enjoyed individual success at the Indiana Relays in Bloomington, Ind., on Friday and Saturday.

The men’s and women’s teams advanced four athletes each to the finals on Saturday, and the Panthers had five individuals finish in the top 10 of their events.

But Eastern head coach Tom Akers had mixed feelings about the meet.

“I thought it was good and bad,” Akers said. “A lot of people did a good job, but I was looking for more people to emerge.”

For the men, junior middle-distance runner David Holm and senior middle-distance runner Chris Wesson each finished in the top three of their events.

“I think our team did well across the board,” Holm said. “Chris ran the best race he has done all season.”

Wesson’s time of 1 minute, 54.22 seconds in the 800-meter run was good enough for second place and was the highest finish by an Eastern athlete.

Holm finished in third place in the 600-meter dash in 1:20.30. Holm said he was hoping to get under 1:20 but was happy with his performance.

“I didn’t know how I was going to do coming into the meet,” Holm said. “I had high expectations for myself and wanted to get into the finals, but I haven’t had much speed training so far this year.”

The men’s 3,200-meter relay team also had a strong showing and finished in 7:47.69.

The team of sophomores Jason Springer, Justin Stewart, Wes Sheldon and senior Clint Coffey finished 19.15 seconds behind first-place finisher Rend Lake.

“That was a race that might go unnoticed, but those guys did a great job,” Akers said. “Rend Lake is probably going to win the national championship in that event, and they hung in there with them.”

For the women’s team, sophomore Kandace Arnold placed well in two more different events.

The Evergreen Park native placed in ninth in both the shot put and weight throw; she threw for 13.36 meters in the shot put and threw for 16.57 meters in the weight throw.

Junior sprinter Tarra Grant was the top finisher for the women’s team with a fifth-place finish of 1:36.55 in the 600-meter run.

Grant said she was not expecting to race so well.

“I was definitely surprised,” Grant said. “But I work really hard, and success comes with hard work.”

Junior sprinter Molly Clutter had the Panther’s other top-10 finish placing ninth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.16 seconds.

“I think the women’s team did good,” Grant said. “There was a lot of competition, and we are still battling some injuries, but I think we pulled together and preformed really well.”

This was the first two-day meet for the Panther’s this season – something Holm said was not a problem.

“Having a two-day meet is no problem for me,” Holm said. “I am used to two-day meets, because I used to do them in high school all the time.”

The Panther’s next meet will be another two-day meet on Feb. 15-16 in Ames, Iowa at Iowa State.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.