ELSAH, Ill. – Mississippi University for Women's track and field teams surpassed pre-season prognostications on Saturday at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships at Principia College. The Owls finished second in the women's competition and fifth in the men's (just a single point from fourth place) in their first season as both SLIAC and full NCAA III members.
 
(SLIAC track and field juggernaut Greenville University won both championships.)
 
Pre-season, the SLIAC coaches had the MUW women's team slotted in seventh and the men in a three-way tie for sixth, on paper. With the loftier finishes – especially on the women's side – in the actual meet, the Owls likely found an alternate use for the preseason poll's paper.
 
MUW's teams hit many milestones during its inaugural SLIAC indoor track and field championship experience.  Among the day's highlights were 12 school records (five men's and seven women's), eight top-3 finishes, MUW's first-ever SLIAC champion in freshman Ty'Kerria Young, and men's standout Sinaj Lynn bringing home both the Newcomer of the Year and Field Events Athlete of the Year awards.
 
Young performed anything but like her name would indicate, putting herself among the league's veteran performers. Young brought home the Owls' first-ever SLIAC gold medal by winning the women's 60-meter hurdles in a time of 9.72 seconds.
 
Young also set MUW school records in both the long jump (4.88 meters) and triple jump (10.55 meters). She placed fifth and second in those events, respectively.
 
In the women's weight throw, freshman Arie'Onna McCollum bested her own school mark with a heave of 10.85 meters.
 
MUW's other top-three finishes came in the 60-meter dash, where Michaiah Adams ran a 7.99 to finish second. The Owls' distance medley relay quartet - Kalee Sanders, Vonisha Towns, Paris Flanery, and Hannah Owens - was third in a school-record clocking of 14:57.99 minutes.
 
Towns also posted a pair of MUW records in the 200 meters (26.75 seconds) and 400 meters (1:04.32 minutes). She placed fourth in both races.
 
Freshman distance specialist Owens broke her own school record for the 3,000-meter run, hitting the tape at 12:178.35 minutes (good for a SLIAC sixth place).
 
On the men's results, Lynn figured prominently for the Owls. In the long jump, Lynn placed second with a school-record leap of 6.56 meters, with teammate Dedrick Gates close behind in third (6.27m). Lynn also brought home a men's silver in the triple jump with a hop, skip, and jump of 12.18 meters.
 
Senior Tanner Collins bested his own school mark in the shot put, as well. Collins uncorked a toss of 12.52 meters on his very first effort of the meet to place fourth.
 
In the 60-meter hurdles, freshman Allen Fields was fourth in an MUW record run of 9.50 seconds. In the 60-meter dash, sophomore Jourden Whitfield set an Owls' record time of 7.23 seconds.
 
The men's 4x400-meter relay quartet – consisting of Tavonta Macon, JaKobe Smith, Gates, and Whitfield - earned a bronze medal, crossing the line with a school-record pace of 3:34.35 seconds.
 
 "I'm very proud of these athletes that came out this weekend to perform," MUW Head Coach Dedrick Burnett said. "From the results we had in this meet, I'm happy to prove the conference wrong and raise the alert that our program is coming in to make a statement in the conference."