Courtney Oldenburg
The Northern Illinois track & field team turned in a second-straight record-setting day Saturday at the Iowa State Classic.
The Huskie quartet of Chanel Kellyman, Jenelle McCalla, Julianne Cronin and Rebecca Cronin demolished the NIU record in the 4×400 relay and Jenner Sio eclipsed her own record in the triple jump.
In addition, Courtney Oldenburg nearly set a new school record in the mile.
“The coaches saw great efforts from our ladies this weekend,” said NIU head coach Connie Teaberry. “Thus far, these were some of our best performances mentally and physically. The competition pushed and they responded. The team continues to move in a great direction.”
Kellyman, McCalla, and the Cronin sisters turned in a great performance in the 4×400 relay, timing in at 3:47.74 to take 11th place overall in the 30-school field.
The record surpassed the previous NIU standard – a 3:49.70 mark set by Carolyn Vasquez, Coretta Evans, Kristin Ewald and Lorene Skipper in 2007 – by nearly two seconds. Including the new 4×200 relay record set Jan. 28 at the IWU Invitational, two indoor relay school records have been broken in the 2011-12 season.
Roneisha Frye
For Sio, she topped the school’s triple jump record with a jump of 39-01.00 (11.91m) to take sixth place in a field that included nationally-ranked jumpers Malaikah Love of Southern Illinois, Carisa Leacock of Iowa and Kenna Wolter of South Dakota. The Rockford, Ill., native broke her own mark of 38-09.50, which she set at the 2011 MAC Indoor Championships.
Meanwhile, Oldenburg came a fraction of a second from setting a new NIU record in the mile with a personal-best time of 4:54.58 to take 16th place. Her time was four-tenths of a second short of Alicja Czajka’s 2003 mark of 4:54.18. Yet, Oldenburg’s mark was five seconds better than her previous PR and eight seconds better than her top time last season.
In the sprint finals, NIU placed two in the top five of the 60 hurdles finals with seniors Megan Gregory and Roneisha Frye. Gregory improved on her prelims time by a tenth of a second to take third place at 8.70, while Frye crossed the finish line in fifth place with a time of 8.704, finishing two-thousandths of a second behind fourth-place Lindsay Lettow of Central Missouri.
In the 60 meters, Kellyman placed 14th with a 7.75 clip for the Cardinal and Black.
The Huskies return to action Friday, Feb. 17, when they head to the Ball State Quadrangular for their indoor regular season finale. The meet starts at 4 p.m. CT inside the Field Sports Building.
For more information on NIU track & field and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
