The Eastern men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams traveled to Carbondale, Ill.,this weekend to compete with 20 other schools in the USA Track and Field Open.

The USA Track and Field Open, which was held on the campus of Southern Illinois University, is not a team scored event, but the Panthers did have impressive individual performances by both the men and the women.

The men didn’t have any individual winners, but several runners finished near the top of the leader board in many events.

In the 800-meter run the Panthers had five finishers in the top 15. Leading the charge was junior Jermaine Jones. The Belleville native finished fifth with a time of 1:58.15, which was fewer than four seconds off the winning time of 1:54.63.

Jones narrowly finished ahead of teammate Spencer Smith. Smith, a senior from Canton, Ohio finished seventh at 1:58.26. Freshman Zach Fairfield (1:58.86) had a strong showing finishing ninth. Freshman Brad Runnion (1:59.32) and junior Kevin Atkins (2:01.54) finished in the top 15 at 11th and 13th respectively.

Sophomore Roger Driver continued his impressive performances by finishing 10th in the 200-meter run. Driver finished with a time of 22.81, just seven-hundredths of a second off Southern Illinois’ Marin Primo’s winning time.

Driver has been a surprise star for the Panthers this season. He has been asked to bring intensity and become a leader to fill the void left by two-time Ohio Valley Conference Athlete of the Year Jarrod Macklin who has been out of action due to an injury.

According to head coach Tom Akers, Driver has exceeded the goals set by the coaching staff this year.

“(Driver) has been a spark for us this year,” he said. “I heard about the intense competitiveness that he had in high school and thought he could be an immediate impact player for us.”

Driver, along with Jones, Smith and Nick Scafiezzo finished in third place in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:21.14. The Panthers just beat out the host Salukis who finished fourth in the event.

Also in the mix for the 55-meter dash title was senior sprinter James Benson. His time of 6.58 was good enough for eighth-place. Benson is no stranger to winning; he has the third best time in Panther history in the 60-meter run and the eighth fastest in the 100-meter.

On the women’s side, Angie Simone was the lone Panther first-place finisher on the day. The sophomore distance runner won the 5,000-meter run in a time of 18:04.38. Simone’s time was more than 20 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Jackie Wachsman of Vanderbilt.

In the 3,000-meter run, the Panthers received a nice showing from freshman Jessica Peach. Peach finished eighth on the run, but had the best finish by a freshman.

Both the men and women will be in action this Friday as the Panthers host the Friday Night Special in Lantz Fieldhouse. The meet will begin at 2:30 p.m.