Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee track and field teams commenced their outdoor season at the Raleigh Relays hosted by North Carolina State. Anelise Egge, recently recognized as the Horizon League Indoor Athlete of the Year and Outstanding Running Performer, set a new program record with a time of 16:17.41, surpassing Holly Nearman's 2009 record of 16:36.62. Egge finished 38th overall in an event drawing top competitors from across the nation.

"Anelise continues to take down records," stated head coach Andrew Basler. "This was her first 5000m on the track and her time wasn't far off from what got into the NCAA West Preliminaries last year."

For the men's team, Divine Aniamaka excelled in the triple jump with a 15.30m performance, earning second place and ranking third on the program's outdoor leaderboard.

"Divine opened with a strong start to his outdoor campaign, his distance today qualified for last year's regionals, but we will be trying push that mark even more as the season goes on," Basler remarked.

In the women's triple jump, Morgan Pilate finished 11th with a distance of 11.85m. Olivia VanZeeland and Kallie Volk both cleared 1.70m in the high jump, concluding in fourth and 10th place, respectively, after tiebreakers. Caden Thomas led the men's high jump entries with a clearance of 1.95 meters.

On the track, Jaelyn Reeves-Lile improved his 100m dash time to 10.53, securing a seventh-place finish among 85 runners. Katie Burns completed the 400m dash in 56.35, placing 38th out of 115 competitors.

"Jaelyn looked very smooth running a colligate-best today, and Katie had an outstanding opener, coming close to her own personal-best," Basler commented.

Anna Szepieniec concluded the day with a 14.45 time in the 100m hurdles. The event in Raleigh continues with field events initiating at 8:30 a.m. and track competitions starting at 11:00 a.m.

Concurrent to the Raleigh Relays, the Panthers' hammer throwers participated in Illinois State's Redbird Challenge. Mercedes Herrera led the women's team with a new career-best toss of 41.50m, finishing in sixth place. Tayler Liesch joined her with a throw of 36.10m. For the men, Jeremiah Johnson reached 47.33m, placing ninth, while Josh Cygan made his debut with a mark of 40.47m.

The Redbird Challenge continues with field events beginning at 10:00 a.m., followed by track events at 12:00 p.m.