McLean County Times

The Illinois State track and field team is set to compete in the Dr. Rick McGuire Invitational, hosted by the University of Missouri in Columbia. The event will take place on Friday and Saturday, with activities commencing at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

This marks Illinois State's first visit to Missouri since May 25-26, 2007, when they participated in the NCAA Mideast Regional Meet. The Redbirds are coming off a successful outing at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational in Iowa City, where they secured five event victories and achieved six entries into their program's top-10 list.

Senior Lindsey Miller excelled in the 60m dash with a time of 7.35 seconds, maintaining her position as third all-time on Illinois State's top-10 list for this event. Senior Mattison Plummer claimed victory in the women's mile with a time of 4:41.12, making her the second-fastest runner in school history for this distance. Plummer has also entered the top-10 list for both the mile and 3000m events this season.

Junior Erin Starks and Senior Corrina Courser improved their times in the 60m hurdles during their recent performance at Iowa, recording times of 8.34 and 8.48 seconds respectively. Both athletes had previously joined Illinois State's top-10 list for this event earlier in the season at the Coughlan-Malloy Cup.

Freshman Zach Paul from Lee's Summit, Mo., enhanced his performance with a time of 6.76 seconds in the preliminaries of the 60m dash, placing him sixth on Illinois State's top-10 list.

Additionally, Junior Jake Welch and Junior Star Mpama made it onto Illinois State's top-10 list for the 600m race with times of 1:18.48 and 1:32.98 respectively during last Friday's competition.