The annual two-day Meyo Invite was packed this weekend with 48 colleges as well as a handful of club track teams competing in South Bend Indiana.

The teams met at the University of Notre Dame where the action began Friday afternoon.

Friday was laced with a variety of preliminary and final events. Eastern sent out contenders for most of them.

Senior thrower, Janie Howse represented the Panther’s by receiving 12th overall out of 35 contestants for Fridays’ women’s weight throwing final.

Anita Saffa ran in the women’s 60-meter dash. The junior sprinter squeezed into Saturday’s final where the top 18 girls advanced. She placed 17th in her preliminary race and received 10th overall in the finals.

Considering Friday was a shorter day of competition, those who competed in the early evening had time to rest before competing on Saturday.

Sophomore Maria Baldwin had one race as she competed in the women’s 5000-meter race. She had a time of 17:17.35 putting her at 14th place out of the 50 runners in the race and fifth all-time in Eastern history.

Four of Eastern’s runners: Amy Yeoman, Amina Jackson, Dhiaa Dean, Kristen Rohrer all teamed up to run in the distance medley relay competition. The quartet seemed to be on the same page with placing 11 out of 19 and collectively ran a time of 11:55.56.

On the men’s side, Chris Ilunga-Matthiesen ran for the Panthers on Friday in the 60-meter dash. He finished 15th out of 48 runners and secured a spot in Saturday’s final. Junior distance runner Paxon Menard finished 16th in the men’s 5000-meter run. Friday’s action was concluded by the men’s 200-meter dash. Jamal Robinson represented Eastern in the event as he finished in 18th place against 49 other runners.

Several colleges across Indiana had first place finishers. Molly Seidel, who is in her final year at Notre Dame, set the tone in Saturdays first race of the day as she took first place in the 3000-meter run for the women.

She received a time of 8.57 seconds. David Timlin ran for Indiana State University, and he finished in first place for the men’s one-mile run with a time of 4:00.42. Purdue also had a first place finisher in the men’s division for the shot put event.

Two club teams finished in the top two spots for the men’s 3000-meter run. “Very Nice Track” came in first place, while “Speed Factory” walked away with a second place finish. Eastern’s Riley McInerney was not too far behind as he finished 23rd in that event for the finals.

Eastern men’s and women’s teams both did exceptionally well in the 800-meter run. Sophomore Michael Brown, who ran for the men, finished in 18th place out of 60 runners on Saturday. Amy Yeoman represented the women on Saturday as she came in 19th place out of 71 runners.

Jack Arkus can be reached at 581-2812 jtarkus@eiu.edu.