SE Illinois News

Two Southern Illinois University graduates earned a place on the USA Track and Field team for the upcoming International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in London, England, thanks to strong performances at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Junior Championships in Sacramento, California, according to SIU Athletics.

Saluki alumni Gwen Berry and DeAnna Price competed in the women’s hammer throw at the junior championships. Berry won the hammer throw with a mark of 245’-3”. Price took third place with a throw of 243’-0”. The two will travel with Team USA to London in August.

Niki Freeman and Kyle Landon led SIU’s crop of track and field athletes and secured three top-20 finishes at the meet between the two of them

Landon, who recently graduated and was competing in his final meet as a Saluki, finished in seventh place in the men’s high jump, with a season-best jump of 7’-3”.

Freeman, a native of Fox River Grove, finished ninth in the hammer throw and came in 12th in the discus at the championships. Her best mark in the hammer throw was 157’-10”. The winning mark in the hammer throw was by Alyssa Wilson, who will attend the University of California at Los Angeles next year as a freshman.

In the discus, Freeman came in 12th place with her best throw coming in at 151’-1”. The discus was won by University of Iowa’s Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, with a toss of 177’-3”.  

Several other athletes with ties to SIU competed at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships. Jeneva Stevens finished ninth in the women’s shot put and eighth in the hammer throw. Freya Block of Neponset took 15th in the hammer throw and earned her first All-America honor after a seventh-place finish at this year's NCAA Outdoor Championships.  

Josh Freeman, an alum, took sixth place in the men’s shot put and Jared Kern, a senior, competed in the shot put, but was unable to record a legal mark.