PITTSBURG, Kan. – The Missouri State women's track and field team wrapped up its participation in the two-day Gorilla Classic here Saturday afternoon, where Madison Meredith turned out a lifetime best, breaking the MSU record in the 60-meter dash.
"It was another day of progression and gaining valuable experience for us," said head coach Jordan Fife. "This was by far our biggest meet of the year based on number of competitors and we had several people step up and take advantage of it. DaeLin had another great day in the high jump and Madi was phenomenal in the 60-meter, smashing her own school record and posting a time that's top-20 in the country right now. We had some young distance runners take big chunks off their lifetime bests in the 3-kilometer as well."
Meredith's time of 7.26, was .06 seconds faster than her own school record in the event, set last season. The personal best also moves her to 16th in the nation overall in time. The senior sprinter also ended the day with her third-straight meet title in the 60-meter dash and her fifth individual title of the indoor season.
Along with Meredith, Wynter Ramos and Calandra Henry raced in the preliminary round of the 60-meter dash, finishing in 21st and 22nd place in the event both recording times of 7.81. Ramos also made strides for MSU in the 200-meter as well, sprinting to a 10th place finish in an 81-person field while recording a time of 24.97.
On the distance side of things, Sierra Williams turned out her second-straight sub-5-minute mile performance, racin"g to a seventh place finish out of the 73 athletes competing in the event. Her time of 4:55.70 was nearly two seconds faster than her previous personal best set two weeks ago at the Jayhawk Classic. Edna Dar wasn't far behind, finishing in 11th place racing a time of 5:01.39.
Competing in the 3,000-meter run, Shelby Palmer also turned out a top-10 performance, finishing in seventh place out of a deep field. Her time of 10:21.85 was over 10 seconds faster than her season best of 10:33.08.
Freshman DaeLin Switzer once again found success in the high jump invitational, jumping to a third-place finish on Saturday afternoon. Her jump of 1.72 meters trumped her previous season best of 1.68 meters, recorded in the first meet of the season.
"Overall, today showed us where we still need some work to get things right for the conference championships in two weeks," continued Fife.
MSU will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 18, as the Bears race at the Arkansas Qualifier taking place in Fayetteville, Ark.
