The Lindenwood men's and women's track and field teams competed at the Missouri Invitational in Columbia, Mo. on Friday afternoon, with the women finishing in fifth place and the men placing eighth in a field of eleven teams each.

The women's squad saw some success early as Jennifer Carter placed second in the 800m run, finishing .15 seconds behind the first-place winner from the host school. Erin Hodge followed Carter's performance up with a second-place finish of her own in the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.06.

Kendra Smith finished third in the triple jump with an 11.75m launch. The junior also finished seventh in the long jump at 5.29m.

Chelsea Smith and Kearstin Cantrell placed 13th and 14th, respectively, in the shot put. Zori Holman tied for fourth in the high jump after clearing the bar at 1.56m.

Michelle Kyle won the only event for Lindenwood on the day after throwing 17.72m in the weight throw ahead of three Division I universities. Chelsea Smith finished fifth.

The women scored 40.5 points as a team, finishing fifth overall behind MIAA for Lincoln and ahead of Missouri S&T.

On the men's side, freshman Ben Brooks finished 11th in the 200m dash and 13th in the 60m dash.

Colin Cernik placed finished 10th in the mile with a time of 4:33.08. Cernik joined Zach McKinley, Ero Doce, and Jerod Broadbooks in placing 11th in the 4x400 relay. 

Akintunde Akinyemi placed fourth in the high jump with a 1.97m clip, just .10m behind the first-place finisher. Xavier Boland jumped 4.75m in the pole vault tying for third.

Ryan Herman finished 10th in the shot put after a throw of 15.28m.

The men finished with 17 points, which was good for eighth place overall. They were only seven points from the fifth-place teams of Lindenwood-Belleville and William Woods.

The teams will be back in action on January 29th and 30th in Elsah, Ill. at the Principia Relays.