The Washington University men’s and women’s track and field teams attended the Bob Keck Invitational at Illinois Wesleyan University, competing against hard teams including Division I Illinois State. Though the Bears left Bloomington, Ill., without winning the meet, the team brought home school records that showed improvement in several events.

On the women’s side, Wash. U. finished fourth, scoring a total of 40 points, while the men’s team scored 26 points, finishing seventh. Illinois State University finished strong as both its men’s and women’s won the invitational, scoring 114 points each.

“Overall, I think was a great meet for us,” head coach Jeff Stiles said. “We saw even more improvements from last time, we got a lot done, and we’re bringing home a lot of life time bests.”

Senior Erica Jackey led the women’s side as she competed extraordinarily well in the 800-meter run. She finished with a time of 2:10.69, beating her own school record by nearly four seconds. In addition, the Bears performed well in the pole vault as sophomore Anna Etherington won the event with a height of 3.81 meters, beating her personal-best by 0.3 meters. She is now second on Wash. U.’s all-time list.

“We’re really performing well in the pole vault,” Stiles said. “Our goal eventually is to sweep that event and I think we’re definitely taking good strides. Etherington set a good tone of what we’re set to accomplish.”

In the women’s mile, sophomores Elizabeth Worley, Katy Barron and Claire Tourjee competed well as they finished third through fifth. Worley finished third with a time of 5:23.08, Barron came in fourth with a time of 5:24.33, and Tourjee place fifth with 5:25.50. In the 3,000-meter run, sophomore Lizzy Handschy had a fourth-place finish with a time of 10:45.92.

Though the men’s did not finish well, many season-bests were accomplished at the meet. Senior Tyler Jackson ran well in the 55 hurdles, finishing third with a season-best time of 7.65. In the pole vault, freshman Troy Makous also performed well as he placed third and recorded a season-high of 4.55 meters.

Junior Ryan Doll placed sixth in the 200 meter run, but broke his personal record and finished with a time of 22.90. Senior Justin Pieper made a third-place finish in the high jump, finishing with a clearance of 1.95m.

The track and field teams look to continue their success in Monmouth, Ill. as they participate in the Fighting Scots Invitational.