It was like Oprah was sitting beside the track on Friday screaming “You get a PB! You get a PB! Everyone gets a PB!” Well it wasn’t quite everyone but it was an incredible couple hours as Lions athletes faced off against some of the best NCAA competition at the Florida Relays and Stanford Invite.
The leading performance was undoubtedly Keira Christie-Galloway’s win in the 100m hurdles. The Big 12 Conference Indoor Champion picked up right where she left off with a new personal best of 13.28 seconds to win at Stanford. Christie-Galloway had intended to open her season last weekend in Fayetville, Arkansas but strong winds and a down pour cancelled her heat. While very early in the NCAA season, the time does rank among the top 10 in the country.
Also in Palo Alto, Iowa State teammate Erinn Stenman-Fahey opened her outdoor campaign with a second place finish in her section and a shiny new personal best of 4:24.98 for 1500m.
Down in Gainesville, Florida Farah Jacques continued her strong start to the season posting the third best time ever in the 100m hurdles. The 2016 Olympian was fifth overall in a time of 13.35 seconds. Jacques, who set best of 13.31 seconds last August in France, had run 13.34 seconds just six days prior to win the University of South Florida Invite. Teammate Devyani Biswal finished 26th overall in a career best season opening performance of 13.98 seconds.
Not to be outdone by the women, Stephen Evans found himself another spot in the Club’s All-Time Top 10 list with his performance in the 800m. The recently crowned USports champion over 600m won his section in a career best 1:49.50 to move to eighth on the Club rankings. Evans currently occupies sports in the Top 10 now in four events.
Tommy Nedow also had a top ten performance in the discus. The Southeastern Louisiana transfer student hurled the platter out to 51.85 metres to finish seventh overall. The performance moves Nedow in to second place on the all-time list behind his older brother Tim. This was the second time this season Tommy has moved up the club rankings after posting the third best hammer throw ever last weekend with the throw of 49.46 metres.
Rounding out the Lions crew in Florida was Saj Alhaddad. The defending Canadian silver medalist in the 400m hurdles was sixth in a time of 52.67 seconds.
