AMES. IOWA  - The Western Illinois indoor track and field teams competed in a field of participants from roughly 25 schools at the Iowa State Open on January 23-24 inside the Bergstrom Indoor Facility in Ames, Iowa.

For the Westerwinds, the top finish came from sophomore Nichole Manning as she won the pole vault with a mark of 3.64m (11'11.25''). In the 400-meter relay, the team of Amy Byers, Faith Chew, Katie Jay and Nikki Klier took fourth with a time of 3:56.71. Chew also placed eighth in the pole fault (10'11.50'') and Klier finished the 400-meter dash in fifth place (57.77).

In the 600-meter run, Jay took ninth (1:26.82) and relay teammate Byers took 11th (1:28.14).

In other distance events, senior Beth Whalen finished fourth in the 5000-meter run (17:45.91) and seventh in the 3000-meter run (10:09.78). Mary Kate Jackson finished the 800-meter run in a time of 2:20.97 for a fourth-place finish.

Senior ChisDell Harris had a mark of 5.13m (16'10.00'') in the long jump for a tenth-place finish and also took sixth in the 200-meter dash (24.89). Other top-performances included Dana LaRue in the weight throw who took 14th place with a throw of 14.31m (46'11.50'') and seventh in the shot put with a throw of 13.32m (42'08.50'').

For the Leathernecks, junior David Roscoe had a throw of 16.81m (55'02.00'') in the weight throw for a third-place finish. The men's distance medley team of Eric Anerino, Kevin Deegan, Jared Schmidt and Jeremy Streater also had a third-place finish in the event with a time of 10:04.90.

Deegan also took seventh in the 1-mile run (4:16.96) and Anerino finished the 3000 run in 11th place (8:33.51).

Other top performances included a fourth-place finish in the triple jump for Blair Hadnoot (46'05.50'') and a sixth-place finish for Tony Odele in the 60-meter hurdles (8.37).

The indoor track and field teams will be back in action on January 30-31, as they travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa to compete in the Jack Jennett Invitational hosted by Northern Iowa.