The track and field squads completed a successful outing to Clarksville, Tenn. this past Saturday in the Austin Peay Invitational.  

The charge, which was spearheaded by the efforts of the relay teams and throwers, yielded separate event wins on the day.

Junior Elvyonn Bailey, sophomore Kamohelo Mangojeane, freshman Ja’Karyus Redwine and junior Chris Chamness blazed a trail through combined efforts to win the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays.

“We did well,” coach Erik Jenkins said in regards to the men’s relay efforts. “We made several mistakes, but we go to meets like this to prepare for the bigger meets down the road.”

In the men’s 800-meter run, WKU took four of the top five spots. Mangojeane won the event with a time of 1:55.78, with freshman Aaron Stevens at his heels in second. Chamness and sophomore Ilia Eligulchvili finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

“The good part about the 800-meter is that [Mangojeane and Stevens] are sprinters, so the challenge was to go out and compete at the very top of their spectrum,” Jenkins said. “They went out, PR’d, and excelled in a race they don’t normally compete in.”

Sophomore Cyrus Johnson’s nabbed an individual victory in the 110-meter hurdles, which he earned with a time of 15.24 seconds.

Junior Derek Hill jumped a personal-record 6-feet-11-inches in the high-jump to grab the gold.

Hill captured the Sun Belt Conference title in the high jump at February’s championships while WKU also took home second and third place in the event.

The Lady Topper 4×100-meter Relay team, led by senior Sharika Smith, with junior Gelela Cooley, freshman Monti Willis and sophomore Maikea Davis dashed to a victory with a time of 48.28 seconds.

Junior Satrina Oliveira captured the win in the discus throw, hurling the disc 149-feet-8 inches to claim top honors. Oliveira’s throw was the second longest in the Sun Belt this season.

“The throwers have been conditioning and lifting extremely well,” Jenkins said, “Coach Hall, our strength and conditioning coach, is doing an extremely good job of preparing our throwers for competition.”

This weekend WKU athletes will compete at the Stanford Relays in Stanford, Cal., the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla. and at the Bellarmine Invitational in Louisville, Ky.

“Our administration has done an excellent job of preparing our team as a championship team,” Jenks said. “Our goals is to compete at a championship level throughout the regular season, then qualify for national championships come the month of May.”