WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue Track & Field has its first split week of the outdoor season with distance traveling to the Raleigh Relays (March 26-27) and the rest of the team traveling to the UCF Knights Invite (March 27-28).
Men’s Notes
• Samuel Vessat, coming off a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 400m, is set for his first outdoor meet as a Boilermaker. He is scheduled to open his season in the 200m in Orlando.
• Douglas Buckeridge, Purdue’s 10,000m school-record holder (28:51.46), is set to open his outdoor season in the event in Raleigh. He also ranks third in school history in the 5000m (13:56.33), fifth in the 1500m (3:45.88) and seventh in the 3000m steeplechase (8:50.19).
• Hugh Jacobsmeyer prepares to open his season in the 1500m in Raleigh, an event he holds the No. 9 spot in school history (3:46.53). He is coming off a record-setting indoor campaign when he broke the 33-year-old 800m school record (1:48.37).
• Victory Achakpoekri is set for his first 400m as a Boilermaker. He was the Southland outdoor bronze medalist last season at SE Louisiana.
• Joel Gates opened his first outdoor season at Purdue with a personal best 54.29m (178-01) in the discus that finished third and fell just 0.68m shy of entering Purdue’s top 10.
Women’s Notes
• The 4x100m team of Nia Wilson, Marissa Palmer, Ashley Odiase and Jayla Cooper opened the season in 43.99 to enter Purdue’s top five and rank seventh in the nation to start the season.
• Odiase entered Purdue’s record book tied for ninth in the 100m (11.55) in her first individual outdoor race at Purdue. She is scheduled to run the 200m in Orlando, an event she set the program record indoors (23.34).
• In her first individual race as a Boilermaker, Palmer ran 11.58 and was in Purdue’s top 10 before Odiase ran 0.03 seconds faster one heat later. Palmer is scheduled for the 200m, an event she ran a wind-legal 23.09 in last season at Georgia State. That time would rank second in Purdue history.
• Britannie Johnson threw an outdoor personal best in the shot put (15.59m / 51-01.75) in the opener to increase her No. 7 standing in school history.
• Lauren Pegher is set to open her outdoor season in the 5000m in Raleigh after she put up two top five times in school history indoors in the 3000m (9:25.65) and 5000m (16:20.69).
Next Up
Purdue has a week off before traveling to the Spec Towns Invitational in Athens, Georgia (April 10-11).
