The Illinois State men’s and women’s track teams travelled to the University of Notre Dame to compete in the prestigious Meyo Invitational. Seniors Jack Anstey and Hattie Plumb turned in impressive performances in the Championship section of the meet. Anstey placed third in the Meyo Mile and Plumb placed eighth in the Championship 800-meter run after competing in the open 600 meters earlier in the meet.

Anstey, an All-American in the 1500, boasts a personal best 3:59.66 in the mile and has had the Meyo Mile in his sights for a long time. “You watch the Meyo Mile and the event just has such a great vibe around it and feels like the climax of the meet,” Anstey said. “To be selected to be in the field is pretty prestigious. I was just really excited to be a part of it. Everyone in that field is a high-class athlete it was exciting to be in that field and competing with those guys.”

The race went out in a relatively honest pace, with the athletes jostling for a position to settle in for the five-lap race around the 320-meter track. The field waited until the last lap before picking up the pace, fighting to win the prestigious event. Anstey worked his way through the field and swung wide on the last corner giving him an honest shot at victory.

“Time wasn’t really a factor,” Anstey said, “it was just about competing. I felt like I did that pretty well, sticking my nose up there for pretty much the entire race and putting myself in a position – with 100 meters to go – to win it. I thought I did that pretty well didn’t quite have the legs in the end, but the field was strong and all you could do was give yourself a chance to win and I thought I did that.”

Anstey ended up finishing third out of 11 racers with a time of 4:05.05. University of Indiana junior Ben Veatch won the race with a time of 4:04.21.

On the women’s side Hattie Plumb was one of two Redbirds to run two separate events at the meet. She ran the 600 meters Friday night, running a 1:33.53, before coming back to the track a day later for the Championship 800. Plumb is the reigning Missouri Valley conference champion in the 800 both indoors and outdoors and this was her first 800-meter race of the 2020 season.

“Bouncing back from a not-so-great 600 I wanted to go out and just race competitively and not think too much,” Plumb said. “I thought too much during the 600 so with this I just wanted to go out there and just run and not think too much about the race. I knew I wanted to go out there and place myself in second or third and just see what I could do.”

The race was fast from the gun and Plumb stayed towards the front of the pack.  

“When we came around the 400 pretty fast I just kind of shut my brain off and didn’t think about it, I was just like you have 400 to go just give it all you got,” Plumb said. “Finishing and seeing my time was exhilarating because that was a good season opener for me. I was happy with the time and how it turned out.”

Plumb’s time of 2:08.15 is an indoor personal best, the top time in the Missouri Valley Conference and the second fastest time in ISU history. Jaimie Phelan, running unattached, won the race in 2:05.17.

For complete results of the Meyo Invitational click here.

Both Anstey and Plumb return to action with the rest of the Redbirds when they travel to Ames, Iowa to compete in the Iowa State Classic, a two day meet, on Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15.