CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri track & field heads to Champaign, Ill. for the Gary Wieneke Memorial Invite Saturday, April 13th. The meet will be held at Demirjian Park at the University of Illinois.

The field events are slated to start at 11:00 a.m with the women's discus. The running events are scheduled for 12:00 p.m with the men's 3000m Steeplechase. 

The last event is set to begin at 4:15 p.m with the men's 4x400m relay followed by the women's race.

Weekly Awards Winners
Parker Feuerborn, a graduate student from St. Michael, Minn., claimed OVC Field Athlete of the Week Honors. Feuerborn competed in the hammer throw Saturday morning. He threw for a mark of 223' 11 (68.27) to take the trophy in the event ahead of 22 other athletes. The mark was the 16th best in the nation, second best in OVC and ranks third in the SEMO record books.

Last Time Out
Parker Feuerborn took the trophy in the men's hammer throw after throwing for a mark of 223' 11".

Terrico Garrett finished with a time of 1:50.08 which was his season best so far this year. Garrett placed first in the men's 800-meter and took home the gold medal.  

Laila Hardin takes the gold in the 400-meter hurdles ahead of 26 other athletes. The Tennessee native crossed the line at 1:00.82.

In the women's hammer Bailee Hux threw the hammer for a distance 161' 07" for fifth place.

Paden Lewis achieved a mark of 164' 08" (5th) in the men's discus.

Tanner Koontz and Sullivan Gleason cleared a height of 16' 0.75" for fourth in the pole vault.

Piper Klinger and Alivia Busch registered marks of 143' 10" (4th) and 142' 00" (5th) in the discus.

Clara Billing vaults over a height of 12' 7.50" for third in women's pole vault.

Jaden Kight grabbed the silver medal in the javelin throw, throwing for a distance of 147' 01".

Justin Breault chalked up a fourth place finish with a throw of 190' 11" in the men's javelin..

With a mark of 210' 03" Paden Lewis grabbed the silver medal and the new personal best in the hammer throw.

Brianna Dixon ran the 100-meter hurdles for a new PR time of 13.97.

Layla Fleige achieved a new PR in the 800, crossing the line at 2:21.90.

In the men's 100-meter, Tanner Koontz recorded a new PR crossing the finish line in 10.90. 

Erika Mellor picked up a new personal best in the 400-meter race with a time of 58.96.

Sydney Burdine, Breanna Miles, Anna Thomason, and Laila Hardin teamed up and placed third in the women's 4x400 finishing in 3:45.58. 

Where We Rank
For each individual event the top 48 performances will be accepted into the NCAA regional which is broken up into East and West. For each relay event, the top 24 relay teams will be accepted into the competition. The top 24 performances in the combined events (Heptathlon and Decathlon) are accepted directly into the Championships. 

The sport is broken up into nine regions, SEMO is in the Midwest Region which includes all the Division One schools from Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Southeast Missouri has five athletes ranked in the top 50 of the country, 32 performances ranked in the top 20 in the Midwest Region, and 18 first place performances in the Ohio valley Conference.

Parker Feuerborn has the ninth best mark in the nation, (2nd regionally, 1st conference) in the hammer throw. The graduate student achieved a distance of  235' 1" at the Richard Martin Invite March 15th, 2024.

Breanna Dixon jumped over a height of 5' 8.75" at the Joey Haines to be ranked 49th in the nation, 12th in the region, and first in the OVC. The freshman als has is ranked 19th (13.91) in the Midwest region in the 100m hurdles.

Paden Lewis is ranked 47th in the NCAA, ninth in the region in the hammer throw. Lewis achieved a mark of 210' 4" at the Tennessee Invite April 5th. Lewis also ranks 15th regionally, first in the conference in the shot put (57' 9"), and 13th regionally, first in the Ohio Valley in the discus (176' 3").

Anna Thomason is ranked 47th (11th Regionally, 1st OVC) in the nation in the heptathlon with 5006 total points scored at the 2024 Joey Haines Invite. She also has the 18th best 100-meter hurdle time (13.90) in the Midwest Region.

Shea DeGraaf scored 7029 points at the Joey Haines Invite to be ranked 27th in the nation and fifth in the region. DeGraaf also has the ninth best throw in the region and best throw in the conference in the Javelin (204' 4").

Breann Miles is ranked eighth in the region in the 100-meter (11.59), ranked 11th in the region in the 200m (1st OVC) (23.84), and ranked 15th in the 400 in the midwest region (55.17).

Terrico Garrett is ranked 12th in the region in the 800-meter with a time of 1:50.08.

Hannah Eastman and Lexie Dockstader are ranked 13th (1st OVC) (35:44.18) and 14th (38:56.97) in the 10,000m in the region.

Laila Hardin has the 12th best 400-meter time in the region and top finish in the OVC with a time of 1:00.82.

The SEMO 4x100 women's squad of Williams, Burdine, Dwaah, Miles ranks 12th in the region (46.64). The men's team of Gordon, Parham, Moore, Brema ranks 16th in the region (43.47).

In the 4x400 the men's squad of Moore, Crawford, Parham, Garrett ranks 11th in the region with a time of 3:13.81 and the women's team of Miles, Dwaah, Hardin, Burdine ranks 11th (1st OVC) as well in the region with a time of 3:50.59.

In the high jump Mason Clough cleared a height of 6' 7.5" to be ranked 16th in the region.

Pole vaulters Tanner Knootz and Sullivan Gleason are ranked 19th regionally, and first in the OVC after vaulting over a height of 16' 5.25".

Clara Billing cleared a height of 13' 3.5 to be ranked 11th in the region, and first in the Ohio Valley in the women's pole vault.

Serena Willimas jumped for a distance of 39' 8.75" to be ranked 16th in the Midwest Region in the triple jump and Luke Busateri ranks 19th (46' 6.75") on the men's side.

In the shot put and hammer throw Marshall Swadley has marks of 55' 5.5" (19th regionally) and 207' 7" (13th regionally).

Justin Breault is ranked 11th (198' 7") best javelin throws in the Midwest Region in the javelin. On the women's side Jaden Kight ranks 12th in the midwest region and first in the conference (152' 4").

Isaac Readnour scored 6253 points in the decathlon, ranking 11th in the Midwest Region.

Team Rankings
The Southeast Missouri men's track and field team is ranked 95th in the nation with 16.48 points coming from Parker Feuerborn's hammer throw mark of 235' 1" (71.65m), Paden Lewis' hammer throw mark of 210' 4" (64.10), and Shea DeGraaf's decathlon score of 7,029 points.

The team is ranked 17th in the Midwest Region with 184.55 total points and third in the conference with 976.74 points behind Eastern Illinois in first with 1,230.40 points.

The men's squad teams that are ranked in the top 50 in the nation are the discus throw team (36th), the hammer throw team (5th), javelin throw team (24th), the pole vault team (12th), and the shot put team (19th).

The Southeast Missouri's women's track and field team is ranked 180th in the nation. The points coming from Brianna Dixon's high jump mark of 5' 8.75" (1.75m) and Anna Thomason's heptathlon score of 5,006 points.

The women's team is ranked 13th in the Midwest Region with 141.36 total points and first in the OVC with 1,275.63 points, 410.28 points ahead of second.

The women's squad teams that are ranked in the nation are the 100m hurdle team (30th), 400m hurdle team (35th), 400m team (46th) heptathlon team (9th), the high jump team (19th), and the javelin team (50th).