INDIANAPOLIS - Nine members of the IUPUI women's track and field team posted new personal bests on Friday (Jan. 26) as the Jaguars hosted day one of a two-day invitational inside Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Three distance runners set new personal bests in the 5,000m event while both pentathlon entries - Morgan Hoard and Paige Laffoon - opened the day by upping their previous bests in multis. 

Hoard and Laffoon took fourth and fifth in the pentathlon, scoring 2,978 and 2,970, respectively. Hoard was buoyed by a third-place finish in the 60m hurdles at 9.54 seconds and shattered her previous best in the 800m run, crossing at 2:38.92. Laffoon was tops among entries in the long jump with a personal best mark of 5.30m (17' 4.75'') and closed the day with a personal best 800m run time of 2:36.79. 

The distance runners closed down the evening, highlighted by Ellie Cates topping the collegiate entries in the 5K. Cates outlasted Oakland's Grace Nolan with a time of 16:59.96, becoming just the second IUPUI runner to go sub-16 minutes at that distance. Madison Fry finished eighth in the invite race at 17:46.08 and Laci Provenzano ran a major personal best at 18:13.82. In the final 5K of the night, Kara Krol clocked a personal best time of 18:58.17, placing sixth in her race. 

In the prelims of the 60m hurdles, Kyla Kante was the team's top finisher at 9.07 seconds and Journey Howard ran 9.19 seconds. Shelby McGee ran a personal best time of 10.08 seconds. In the 60m dash, sophomore Lillian Sebastian ran a team-best time of 8.16 seconds while Skyler Sichting posted a new personal best effort of 8.27 seconds. 

The mile saw Sophie Reichard continue to impress with a time of 5:14.29 to place third in her race while Rebecca Orvis clocked a new personal best time of 5:43.13. Later in the 200m event, Modupe Awosanya ran a team-best time of 25.15 to place 11th overall while Karis Davis ran 26.03. Freshman Paige Schulte notched a personal best time of 26.29 in winning her heat. 

Earlier in the day, Awosanya finished third in the long jump with a best mark of 5.76m (18' 10.75''). 

The invitational will continue on Saturday (Jan. 27) with events beginning at 1:00 p.m..