Red-shirt sophomore Zye Boey wasn’t happy with the hand offs.

But the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay will gladly walk away with the school record.

At Vanderbilt Invitational on Saturday Boey, senior Brandon Jelks, junior Darren Patterson and freshman Jacob Mitchell finished second in the 400-meter relay in 40.32 seconds, a school record, which broke a mark set in 1987.

This mark is the top mark in the Ohio Valley Conference this season.

“Our hand offs are still not the best,” Boey said. “We knew that wasn’t our best.”

Boey said the team came in very confident and that’s how they set the school record.

Boey said the relay team will make sure they get their steps and their repetition down, so they can qualify for the NCAA outdoor championships.

The Eastern track and field teams sent athletes to the Vanderbilt Invitational and to Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Gateway Classic this weekend.

The Panthers walked with school records, personal bests and season bests at both meets and walked away with the team titles at SIUE.

In Edwardsville on Saturday, Winston notched the top outdoor high jump mark in program history clearing 7 feet, .5 inches for the first-place win. This was Winston’s first mark of the season, which broke a record set in 1994.

Other Eastern athletes notched personal bests or season best and came close to school records in the process.

At Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., the 1,600-meter men’s relay team finished second in the event in 3 minutes, 9.34 seconds.

However, that marks ranks second in program history.

The mid-distance crew dominated the Vanderbilt Invitational in the 800-meter run. Senior Jason Springer won, sophomore Sean Wiggan was second, senior Wes Sheldon was third and senior David Holm was fifth. All but Holm’s time moved them into the top 10 in program history.

Red-shirt sophomore Megan Gingerich and senior Meghan Carney also moved into top 10 with their third- and fourth-place finishes in the 800-meter run, respectively. Gingerich’s time (2:07.55) moved her up to second on the top 10 list, while Carney moved to seventh (2:12.69).

“I’m kinda shocked,” said Gingerich of her race and Carney’s race.

Gingerich listened to the other competitors and heard them talking about what time they were trying to complete the 800-meter run, and tried to stick with them.

Gingerich said she had a good race through the first 600 meters and this season has been nice to see hard work pay off as her times keep dropping every race.

She said she doesn’t seen time as the race’s main factor, but it’s more about competitive racing.

“Every day is different,” Gingerich said. Gingerich also noted Carney has been successful this season because she’s a senior and leaving it all out on the track.

Red-shirt junior Caitlin Finnegan won the 400-meter hurdles and moved into second place all-time.

In other action, the women’s 1,600-meter relay team also won at Vanderbilt. In Edwardsville, the women’s team cruised to a team title.

The Panthers finished with 234 points with six scoring teams. SIUE, the runner-up finished with 112.5 points. The men’s squad finished with 162 points with six scoring teams. SIUE, also the runner-up, finished with 149 points.

Both Eastern teams combined to win 10 events. Both squads return to action when some athletes will head to the Drake Relays next weekend.Others will head to the Stan Lyons Invite in Indianapolis next weekend.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7994 or kjmurphy@eiu.edu.