The Washington University track and field teams squared off with two Midwest rivals this past weekend and eked out a pair of wins against both.

The men’s and women’s squads both beat out Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) and the University of Chicago for a pair of close wins at the Illinois Wesleyan Triangular, with the women’s team’s 119 points barely edging out IWU’s 117 and the men’s team’s 138 points putting them ahead of IWU’s 119.

Back in Bloomington, Ill., for the third straight meet, both sides got strong performances in both the track and the field events to help them pull away victorious.

Among the six winners on the women’s side was senior Erica Jackey, who took first place in the mile run with a time of 5:06.40. Jackey’s other appearance on the day was another successful one, as her second-place time of 2:14.14 in the 800-meter run was good for a Wash. U. school record.

“I had zero intention of trying to set the school record. I had no idea till a couple hours after the meet. It was my first 800 of the season, and I felt good coming off the mile. It was a really awesome race, and I’m excited,” Jackey said.

Freshman Lucy Cheadle (5:13.95) finished right behind Jackey in the mile in her only event of the day, as did senior Liz Phillips (2:17.09) in the 800-meter run.

Four other individual winners highlighted the day for the women’s team. Sophomore Ahkianne Wanliss won the 55-meter dash in 7.57 seconds, senior Molly Wawrzyniak took the 3000-meter run in 10:23.87, and sophomore Anna Etherington won the pole vault for the second straight week at 3.30 meters. Sophomore Jasmine Williams tied for first in the high jump at 1.61 meters, and those points gave Wash. U. the win after the initial tally of points for the event was incorrect.

The women’s distance medley also finished in first place with a time of 12:25.28.

“Chicago is really competitive, and IWU is an amazing team. The fact that we beat them is awesome. They’re highly ranked nationally,” Jackey said. “I thought it was an awesome meet for us.”

Nine different winners paced the men’s side to their 19-point victory as the team actually won more events (nine) than it lost (eight). Contributions came in across all of the different kinds of events. In the sprints, junior Ryan Doll (6.67 seconds) finished first in the 55-meter dash and sophomore Arthur Townsend (50.99 seconds) won the 400-meter dash. Senior Tyler Jackson also took the 55-meter hurdles with ease, though his time of 7.82 missed his season-high mark of 7.66 set the previous week.

In the longer-distance events, three more Bears came out on top. Sophomore Austin Vanbastelaer’s 4:23.50 won him the mile run, sophomore Kevin Sparks finished first in the 3000-meter run in 8:40.67, and freshman Andrew Catanese won the 5000-meter run in 15:08.68.

Finally, Wash. U. had another three athletes coming out on top in the field events. Senior Justin Pieper won the high jump again at a height of two meters, freshman Nicholas Alaniva’s 4.42 in the pole vault gave him a win, and junior Tom Arnold took the shot put with a throw of 13.67 meters.

The teams will travel to Terre Haute, Ind., next week for the Engineer Invitational hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The meet will begin at 12:30 p.m.

“I think people are already doing great, but everyone across the board—you’re going to see improvement,” Jackey said. “Everywhere we’ve had a great start, and everyone’s going to get better individually, and we’ll get better as a whole.”