The Eastern men and women’s track and field teams each took third place this past weekend at the Illini Classic.

The men totaled 78 team points, which topped Loyola, Bradley, Saint Louis, Western Illinois and Butler. Illinois won the team title with 266 points and Southeast Missouri was runner-up with 124 points.

The women’s team scored 85 points, which trailed Illinois who won the meet and Northern Illinois who was runner up. Illinois had 145 points. Eastern outscored Southeast Missouri, Ball State, Loyola, Western Illinois, Bradley, Butler and Saint Louis.

Eastern Coach Tom Akers said there were some good individual performances but they were not really deep in those areas. He also said they had a solid performance but not spectacular.

Junior runner Calvin Edwards had a first place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.32 seconds. He led all Eastern runners and is now ranked in the top 15 of the country.

Several team members established new personal records this past weekend. The list includes Zane Chapman in the weight throw, Kendall Williams in the long jump, Jordan Wallace and Maria Baldwin in the 3000-meter run, Bryn Buckwalter in shot put and Jackie Jones in the high jump.

Seniors Jordan Wallace and Aviance King each had runner-up finishes. Wallace came in second in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:07.08 seconds, which puts her at the seventh fastest mark in school history. King finished second in the high jump with his jump of two meters.

Akers was impressed with many athletes from last weekend including Danny Trevor. Trevor has been banged up for the last two months with hamstring and foot injuries. Akers said that he was not feeling any ill affects from those injured areas after he ran on Saturday.

Freshman Nyjah Lane finished fourth in both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes. Sophomore Kristen Paris finished third in the 800-meter run. Juniors Dhiaa Dean and Amy Yeoman followed in fourth and fifth place.

Akers said Angelica Anyaogu, who ran the 60-meter dash, had a very good meet.

He also pointed out she had a good week and had a good series of jumps in the long jump.

The women had fourth place finishes in the 4×400-meter relay while the men finished third. Junior Eric Gordon finished in fourth place with his pole vault of 4.70 meters.

Both teams are back in action this Saturday for the EIU John Craft Invite at 9 a.m. in the Lantz Fieldhouse.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].