Another weekend brought another strong set of performances from the Washington University track and field teams.

Facing off against athletes from eight different schools, the two teams combined to win five events in the Fighting Scot Invitational at Monmouth College on Saturday in the sixth meet of the indoor season.

With only two weeks left before the University Athletic Association Indoor Championships, the squads have focused on getting ready and reaching qualifying times.

“We’re having people trying to get some qualifying times, trying to put more of our best lineup out there, figuring out who will be in our conference lineup,” senior Liz Phillips said. “We had a lot of really good performances—a lot of [personal records] and really good performances all around. A really exciting meet for personal improvement.”

For the No. 7 women’s squad, the highlight of the day was the one-mile run. Three Bears found their way into the top five in the rankings, led by Phillips, whose mark of 4 minutes, 57.90 seconds was the third-best time in NCAA Division III so far this season.

“I hadn’t raced in three weeks, and honestly I was kind of nervous going into it, hoping I would put up a good time, and it ended up going pretty well,” Phillips said. “There wasn’t a lot of competition, but I think that we tried to pace it well and execute it pretty well. I felt pretty good.”

Sophomores Claire Tourjee and Katy Barron picked up third- and fifth-place finishes in the event with respective times of 5:19.45 and 5:30.31.

Freshman Lucy Cheadle won her only event of the day. Her mark of 17:22.79 in the 5000-meter run was good for a first-place mark by nearly 18 seconds. Senior Molly Wawrzyniak’s time of 17:43.03 gave her a third-place finish as well.

Sophomore Jasmine Williams, who competed in four events on the day, picked up a first-place height of 1.68 meters in the high jump, a best-ever mark for her. Sophomore Anna Etherington won the pole vault at 3.69 meters.

“We’ve improved a lot. I think we’re just kind of taking our young talents and developing them,” Phillips said. “I think there’s more improvement to be done, but our season is relatively short, and conference always seems to sneak up on you pretty quickly.”

The showcase event of the day for the men’s team was the 5,000-meter run, in which the Bears took the first through fourth spots in the final results. Sophomore Kevin Sparks won the race in 14:49.47 and was the only runner in the event to break the 15-minute mark. Three more Bears just missed that point, however—freshman Ryan Senci (15:02.54), junior David Hamm (15:03.86) and sophomore Elliott Petterson (15:04.26) took second through fourth in the event respectively.

Several other members of the team came close to victories in their events. Sophomore Arthur Townsend finished the 400-meter dash in 50.75, just 0.71 off of the winning time. Freshman Brendan Stone’s 1:58.23 put him in second place in the 800-meter run. Freshman Andrew Padgett (4:20.31) and sophomore Caleb Ford (4:20.75) took third and fourth, respectively, in the one-mile run, and senior Tyler Jackson just missed out on first place in the 60-meter hurdles, with his time of 8.22 placing him 0.90 off of the win and giving him second place in the event.

“We had a whole lot of people run personal bests, and it was really good to see a lot of people show improvement,” Jackson said. “It was really good on a whole. Personally, I didn’t run as well as I’d have liked, but I’m not really complaining.”

With only two weeks between this meet and the UAA Indoor Championships, the teams are fine-tuning the lineups. The men’s team hopes to repeat as conference champions, while the women’s team will look to finish one spot ahead of its second-place finish last year.

“We just need to keep doing what we have been doing, and we should be able to take UAAs again,” Jackson said.

The Bears will get their final tune-up before the conference championships when they travel to Illinois College on Friday, Feb. 17. The meet will begin at 5 p.m.