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Lifetime-Bests and National Efforts for Monmouth Track

Monmouth, IL (02/02/2020) — Monmouth's men and women turned in six total personal-bests as the men placed sixth and the women seventh at Friday's men's Squig Converse Invitational and Saturday's women's Warhawk Classic Invitational at UW-Whitewater.

Opening on Friday, Monmouth's men turned in a relay win and recorded a pair of lifetime marks in the field events. The win came in the 4x200 relay where Lucas Sondgeroth, Darius Williams, Luke Ditsworth and Brock Alexander won at the wire with a 1:33.17, just a second ahead of the runners up.

Drew Thaxton turned in his career-best throw in the shot put and landed a sixth-place effort in the weight throw. Thaxton heaved the shot 51'6-1/2" to place third at the meet and 20th nationally. He his weight throw mark of 54'5-1/2", sandwiched him between Joe Krall's runner up mark of 59'4" - which ranks seventh in the nation - and Andy Bird's eighth-place effort of 51'9".

Austin Pfau recorded the men's other field event PR. Pfau turned in a triple jump of 5'8-1/2" to place third, less than 5" out of a runner up finish.

Alex Cutright ran his career mark in the 60-meter hurdle prelims. He placed seventh in the finals with an 8.74 after clocking a PR of 8.54 in the prelims. Rounding out the Scots' top eight men's finishers was Griff Morrill who clocked a 15:48.8 for an eighth-place finish in the 5,000-meters.

The Scots' women took to the track Saturday and produced three PRs and nine top eight performances.

Arika Hofmann turned in the lone track lifetime-best, clocking a 2:21.98 in the 800 to place fifth, just 17 one-hundredths out of fourth.

Nearly mirroring the men's competition, the Scots' top women's finish came in the 4x200 relay where Kenzie Baker, Vanessa Caldwell, Cindy Ladner and Jamiya Johnson placed second after running a 1:48.24, less than two seconds off the winning pace. Baker also took a third-place finish in the 200 where she clocked a 26.49.

It was a pair of sixth-place finishes in the 400 and 5K. Jordan Peckham turned in a sixth-place time of 1:00.48 in the 400, missing fifth by less than a half second. Caroline Young led a 6-7 finish in the 5K where she clocked a 19:28.27, just ahead of Ezzie Baltierra-Chavez who ran a 19:28.52.

Aleeka Gentzler turned in the women's top finish in the field events, clearing 5'0-1/4" in the high jump to place sixth. A pair of eights were recorded in the throws where Leigha Sebben launched a shot put mark of 39'4". Hannah McVey paced the Scots' 8-9 placing in the weight throw with a toss of 49'5", just ahead of Megan Gilstrap's 48'11" mark.

Monmouth's final career-best efforts came in the pole vault where Katie Hayes and Linsey Turner each cleared 9'9-3/4", placing Hayes 13th and Turner 15th by virtue of attempts after five vaulters were tied at that height.

The Scots travel to Illinois Wesleyan for the Keck Invitational set for Feb. 8.