Chanel Kellyman
The Northern Illinois track & field team won the Chicagoland Intercollegiate Championships Friday in Chicago behind six event titles and several top five finishes.
NIU scored 174 team points on the blustery day to take first in the 18-team field, followed by DePaul in second place with 136 and UIC in third with 85.
“We had a lot of solid performances despite the weather,” said Huskie head coach Connie Teaberry. “Our times don’t reflect the 50 degrees, which shows confidence and good execution. This was a competition that makes coaches proud; no complaining about the conditions, but plenty of positive results.”
The Huskies were particularly dominant in the sprint events, where they took three individual wins and a relay victory. The most impressive among those was in the 200 meters, where NIU managed to sweep the top five spots.
Chanel Kellyman took first place with a 24.59 clip, followed by Rasheta Butler (2nd – 24.70), Janay Mitchell (3rd – 24.80), Roneisha Frye (4th – 24.95) and Megan Gregory (5th – 25.29).
Northern would also claim the top three spots in the 100 meters. Butler finished in first and broke the Ted Haydon Track record with an 11.92 run in the finals, while Kellyman ran an 11.95 and Mitchell crossed the finish line with an 11.97 mark.
In the 100 hurdles, Frye and Gregory owned the competition. After both finished one-two in the prelims, Frye ran away in the finals with a time of 13.71 – coming one-hundredth of a second from tying the NIU record. Her teammate Gregory would follow close behind in second place with a 14.06 time.
The quartet of Kellyman, Mitchell, Frye and Butler teamed up in the 4×100 relay to take first place with a 45.98 run that not only broke the facility record, but also was over three seconds better than second place Lewis.
Rebecca Cronin
Rebecca Cronin took her first outdoor event title of the year in the 800 meters with a 2:13.74 run. Finishing in second place was junior Courtney Oldenburg, who crossed the finish line at 2:15.43, while Julianne Croningot a team point with an eighth place finish at 2:21.44.
Other top finishers on the track include Erin Milner and Jenelle McCalla finishing second and third, respectively, in the 400 hurdles and Claire McAuley taking sixth in the 1500 meters. In relays, the 4×800 relay, which consisted of Oldenburg, the Cronin sisters and Jessica Troike, took second place, while the 4×400 quartet of Milner, Erica Miller, Andreanna Rowe and McCalla finished third.
In the field events, Sidra Sherrill had a breakout day with her first career event title in the shot put behind a 44-09.00 (13.64m) heave. The freshman also claimed second place in the discus with a 139-02 (42.42m) throw.
Jenner Sio finished in third place in the triple jump, leaping 38-09.50 (11.82m) to take the bronze. Meanwhile, Kellyman – competing in a field event for the first time in 2011-12 – earned third in the long jump with a 17-11.50 (5.47m) mark.
Kelly Moser tied for fourth in the high jump, hitting a height of 4-11.75 (1.52m) before bowing out.
The Huskies return to action next weekend when they travel to Macomb, Ill., for the Lee Calhoun Memorial Invitational. The meet start at 1 p.m. Friday, April 13, and continues the next day at 11 a.m.
For more information on NIU track and field and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
