The Illinois State track and field team set two school records on April 3 during the first day of the Pepsi Florida Relays at Pearcy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.
The achievements included the men’s 4×400 meter relay team—Jake Welch, Evan Watson, Zach Paul, and Enyinnaya Nwagwu Jr.—who tied the school record with a time of 3:06.51 to place fifth. In addition, Becca Heitzig broke the women’s 1500 meter school record by more than two seconds, finishing seventh in the invite section with a time of 4:14.79.
Pauline Schedler finished ninth in the same event with a time of 3:16.18, moving into third place in program history for that discipline. On the men’s side of the 1500 meter invite, Julian Baker achieved a personal best time of 3:43.56 to move from seventh to fifth all-time at Illinois State.
Other notable performances included Cayde de Waal taking second place in the men’s 1500 meters (3:51.68), Cole Stevens earning twelfth in men’s hammer throw (55.69 meters), Adi Scott placing twentieth in women’s hammer throw (51.14 meters), Isabelle Hemmen finishing sixteenth in women’s pole vault (3.75 meters), Nwagwu placing sixteenth in the men’s 200 meter dash (21.06 seconds), Abigail Milott earning twelfth in women’s long jump (5.68 meters), and Brody Rigdon securing twentieth place in men’s long jump (6.82 meters).
According to the official website, Illinois State Redbirds benefits from resources such as the Redbird Athletics Excellence Fund for competitiveness and recruitment and utilizes facilities like OSF HealthCare Athletics Training Center for student-athlete preparation. The program is linked to Illinois State University and competes across various NCAA Division I events nationwide. The official website also provides news, schedules, rosters and fan resources to support its athletic community.
Competition at the Pepsi Florida Relays will continue Saturday starting at 8 a.m.
