Iowa City, lowa  - The Western Illinois indoor track and field teams finished the Iowa Invitational with eight first-place finishes and seven second-place finishes at the UI Recreation Building.

The Westerwinds were paced by top performances by senior ChrisDell Harris and freshman Amy Byers. Harris won three events in the long jump (5.45m), the 60-meter dash (7.60) and the 200-meter dash (25.87). Byers, had three second-place finishes in the high jump (1.53m), 60-meter hurdles (9.65) and the 400-meter dash (1:00.05). The Ferris, Ill., native also took third in the long jump (4.70m).

Other top performances on the women's side included a first-place finish in the 400 dash (59.02) by junior Nikki Klier, a second-place finish in the pole vault (3.35m) by senior Faith Chew and a third-place throw (12.74m) in the shot put by freshman Dana LaRue.

The Leathernecks recieved two first-place finishes from senior Blair Hadnott in the long jump and the triple jump with marks of 6.85 meters and 14.36 meters. Junior Eric Anerino picked up another Leatherneck first-place finish in the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:47.19.

Other top performances included a first-place mark in the weight throw (17.13m) by senior David Roscoe, a first-place finish in the 800-meter run (1:53.50) by senior Kevin Deegan and a third-place mark in the pole vault (4.25m) by senior Josh Schupbach.

The indoor track and field teams will be back in action as they travel to Ames, Iowa on January 24  to compete at the Iowa State Open at the Bergstrom Indoor Facility.

On how the team performed
“Overall, we had a really good meet. I think things are going better than they usually are at this time of year so I am happy with the progress that we are making and hopefully we continue to make more progress as the season continues.”

On some top performances on the men's side
“Blair Hadnott had two solid performances, but he is not as consistent as he needs to be across the board, however, he still had really good jumps to win the long jump and triple jump today.”

“David Roscoe won the weight throw with a personal-best mark and it was also good having some of the freshman guys throw well tonight too.”

On some top performances on the women's side
“ChrisDell Harris won a couple of events and looked really strong. Nikki Klier ran very well for being sick for quite a while and that was good to see.

On next weekend's meet at Iowa State
“We will hopefully be able to take a bigger and stronger squad to Iowa State next week. They have a really big 300-meter track and that gives us an opportunity to run some better times on a great surface.”