Full Results

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Fighting Illini 60m hurdler Pedrya Seymour placed runner-up at the Meyo Invite in the 60m hurdles, finishing behind Purdue's Devynne Charlton (8.02) with a time of 8.09. Seymour lowered her time in each of the three races this weekend, winning her prelims and semifinal heats.  

"I thought she handled herself very well," Associate Head Coach Randy Gillon said of the Illini hurdler. "It's a different challenge when you have to compete on back-to-back days. You normally have semifinals and finals on the same day, but this weekend she had to compete on Friday and then turn back around on Saturday and compete again. It's a process that takes a different kind of focus. This meet is always going to present stiff competition and it never disappoints in that way."

Seyour advanced to Saturday morning's semifinal round with a time of 8.25, winning her heat by more than a quarter of a second. The Illini redshirt junior began day two competition with another heat victory, lowering her time to 8.20 to advance into the final. In the final, Charlton edged out Seymour by 0.07 seconds in heat two of the final.

"Any time you can run under 8.10, you can't take that for granted," said Coach Gillon. "She's gone from being the hunter to the hunted. Every time she steps on the line, her credentials are being announced. She is learning how to handle that expectation and she continues to measure up which is very encouraging."

Seymour and Charlton have met in back-to-back meets this season. Seymour bested the reigning Big Ten champion two weeks ago with a personal-best 7.98 time at the Rod McCravy Memorial meet on January 21.

Jayla Stewart and Kortni Smyers-Jones joined Seymour in the semifinal round on Saturday morning, but were unable to advance to the final. Stewart timed 8.51 in heat three, while Smyers-Jones clocked 8.79 in heat two.

In distance events, Valerie Bobart set a new personal-best time in the 3,000m race with a time of 9:55.04, while Denise Branch finished with a time of 5:00.55 in the mile.

The Fighting Illini Women's Track and Field team will be back in action next weekend as they travel to Nashville, Tennessee for the Music City Challenge. The meet will begin on Friday, February 10 and continue through Saturday, February 11.