Day 1 Results
AMES, IOWA. – The Fighting Illini kicked off their opening day at the Iowa State Classic with six top-10 finishes and five personal-record marks. Day one's highlight came from sophomore Pedrya Seymour in the 60m hurdles. Seymour clocked a personal-best performance in the 60m hurdle prelims, and then surpassed her prelim time in the final. Her 8.27 finals time places her 10th on the Illinois indoor all-time list. Â
"It was an outstanding day [for Seymour,}" said Head Coach Ron Garner. That was a top-10 time in school history. Just a tremendous effort. It was the second meet in a row with three hurdlers qualifying for the finals. Being so young, it shows a great deal of promise, and people are going to be back in the game in the hurdles very shortly."
Pedrya Seymour brought her best this afternoon at the Lied Recreational Center, posting a personal-record time in the 60m prelims and again in the event final. In the prelims, Seymour bested the field with an 8.34 time and was joined by fellow Illini Jayla Stewart and Kortni Smyers-Jones. With three of the eight finalists donning the Orange and Blue, Seymour once again posted a personal-record time of 8.27, placing second behind BYU's Alyssa Monteverde-Dalton (8.25). The time places Seymour 10th on the Illinois 60m hurdles all-time list. Rounding out the trio of Illini to reach the final, Smyers-Jones ran a personal-record 8.53 time to finish sixth, while Stewart placed eighth (8.57). Â
"After having a tough outing at Notre Dame, they approached this meet with a great deal of focus, which led to the results that they had," said Associate Head Coach Randy Gillon. "We saw them warm up with a great sense of purpose, really focused, and executed well in the prelims. In the finals, Kortni had a steel, ice cold focus through the warm up, arguably her best before any meet, and the results were predictable."
The Orange and Blue tallied a couple more personal-records in the 200m, where Sade Hargrove placed ninth overall with a personal-record time of 24.72. Following Hargrove was Kymbriona Taylor (24.80) and Smyers-Jones (25.01) with top-16 times. Jasmine Berry rounded out the group of four with a personal-record time of 25.44.
"Good efforts again [in the 200m]," said Coach Garner. "Hopefully, we get some [work] in the next week and be ready to give our personal-best at conference [championships]. Hargrove finished ninth overall, which was a good indicator for her. Kymbriona [Taylor] was right there in the same spot [too.]"
Janile Rogers turned in the top field event performance when she placed fourth in the long jump. Her leap of 19'0" (5.79m) set a new personal-record for the sophomore. Briana Driver was the other Illini representative in the event, marking 17'8" (5.38m) in her second attempt.
"It's been [Rogers's] best jump since she's been here. She did a very nice job. It was just nice to see her go in and be able to compete, being top-four overall."
Elsewhere in field events, Kandie Bloch-Jones tied for fifth with a 5'7" (1.70m) clearance.
Distance wrapped up day one where Amanda Fox led the Illini in the event with a time of 17:16.52, while Hanna Winter finished with a time of 18:36.53. Concluding the day for the Illini was the 3,000m run with Denise Branch and Valerie Bobart. The two runners finished within two seconds of each other, Branch crossing the finish line in 9:59.20, while Bobart clocked in at 10:01.57.
The Illini continue competition at the Iowa State Classic tomorrow morning, beginning at 10 a.m. Highlighting tomorrow's action will be Nicole Choquette in the 800m, the women's pole vault and the women's 60m dash competitions. Â
Top-10 Finishes
2) Pedrya Seymour: 60m Hurdles, 8.27
4) Janile Rogers: Long Jump, 19'0" (5.79m)
5) Kandie Bloch-Jones: High Jump, 5'7" (1.70m)
6) Kortni Smyers-Jones: 60mh Hurdles, 8.53
8) Jayla Stewart: 60m Hurdles, 8.57
9) Sade Hargrove: 200m, 24.72
