The Eastern track and field teams are coming off a great finish from their last meet and are using that to power them into the Ohio Valley Conference championship this weekend.

At the EIU Friday Night Special, the women’s track team finished first and the men finished second. Last year, the EIU women won its sixth indoor title. Southeast Missouri won its second consecutive title.

Junior Ivy Handly had a season-best time of 5:06.81 in the mile run. In the 3000 meter run, junior Ruth Garippo finished second with a time of 10:24.30. Handly was also the OVC track athlete of the week.

Senior Briana Walker finished first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.63. Finishing right behind here was junior Ashley Fouch with a time of 26.38. Senior Dhiaa Dean finished first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.24.

In the 4×400 meter relay, the team of junior Tori Master, freshman Shirley Jones, junior Kaitlyn Corzine, and freshman Ashley Parola took the top time of 4:10.04. Master also placed second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:05.57. She finished behind teammate, senior Amina Jackson, who had a time of 1:03.16.

Junior Jamal Robinson placed first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.05. Senior Calvin Edwards placed second behind Robinson with a time of 22.21. Edwards also finished in first in the 400-meter dash with a 49.78 time.

Senior Christian Ilunga-Matthiesen finished with a personal record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.76 and was the OVC track athlete of the week.

Senior Janie Howse set an EIU record in the weight throw with a 62’01.00” throw. Howse was named the OVC field athlete of the week.

The Panther women finished 11 points ahead of Indiana State to get the win. The men took second place but only by three points.

Southeast Missouri’s senior pole vaulter Christian Locke was named the OVC field athlete of the week for the second straight week. Locke broke the school’s indoor record to 17’0.75” during the Redhawks Invitational. The previous record was 16’11.5” set by Jaret Willi in 2002. Locke is 45^th in the nation. The week before, Locke had the height of 16’7.25” at the Purdue University Fred Wilt Invitational.

Also for the Redhawks, junior Marc Maton and junior Megan Parks both set new 1000m indoor records. Maton had the time of 2:26.25 which broke the 2009 record of 2:27.60 by Paul Stemmerman. Parks finished with a time of 2:53.33, which beat the 1998 record set by Janelle Quigley.

The host team, Tennessee State University, had a good showing at their last meet, the Samford Open. TSU’s 4×400 relay team of Amber Hughes, Clairwin Dameus, Kayla Pryor, and Christian Pryor finished with an OVC-best time of 3:41.92. Hughes was also the top NCAA finisher in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.39.

Quamel Prince won the 800m for the men’s side with a time of 1:51.27. Malik Wright set a personal record in the 400m with a 49.26 time. Shaquille Cragwakk took third place in the triple jump with a 14.8m jump. Kyle Washington threw the shot put 16.01m to take fourth place.

Tennessee State will host the OVC indoor championship on Feb. 26-27.

Tyler McCluskey can be reached at 581-2812 or at densportsdesk@gmail.com