Heckman highlights WKU’s day at Vanderbilt Invitational
Published 10:50 am Sunday, January 23, 2022
Western Kentucky fifth-year senior Savannah Heckman continues to be the highlight of the squad’s indoor season as she took home the 5,000-meter title at the Vanderbilt Invitational on Saturday in Nashville by beating the rest of the field by 50 seconds with a personal best of 17:04.66.
Overall, the team brought back 13 top-10 finishes against tough competition including multiple SEC programs and unattached professionals.
“I’m very pleased with the effort across the board,” WKU director of cross country/track and field Brent Chumbley said in a news release. “We had a lot of improvements from last weekend. Savannah had a great meet again and we had several PRs throughout the team this week.
“I feel really good about where we are after two weeks. The teams are focused and working hard to make the small improvements we need.”
In the women’s 5k, in addition to Heckman’s win, Lucy Rutherford and Mary Dye placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Heckman also placed sixth in the mile, just a second off her time from last weekend and marking another top-five indoor mile time in female program history. Her time of 4:52.38 at the Vanderbilt Invitational is now fifth in the program’s record book.
The women’s distance medley relay team placed seventh, while Grace Turner and Allison Arnett picked up eighth and ninth, respectively, in the high jump. In one of the only pentathlon appearances in recent program history, Samyzia Sears finished ninth with 2,771 points.
On the men’s side, both the 4×400-meter relay and the distance medley relay squad finished fifth. The track saw numerous PRs from Hilltoppers including Cedric Johnson (60-meter hurdles), Rafael Teodoro Da Silva (400), Jordan Eddy (800) and Keegan Barnette (mile).
Both the men and women’s throwers had PRs, with Brett Brannon placing seventh in weight throw. Kaison Barton and John Elam finished seventh and ninth in the shot put, respectively, with Elam picking up a personal best.
WKU will take a one-day trip up I-65 this coming Saturday for the Louisville Invitational.
