Valparaiso, Ind. – In their final tune up before the Horizon League Outdoor Track Championships the Flames were sizzling this past weekend at the Crusader Open hosted by Valparaiso University.  The women's team took home the top spot and the men grabbed second place.
 
The women's 4 x 100 meter relay team of Roma Siddiqui, Teagan Hough, Basirat Iginla and Ariel Gibbs blazed to a first place finish in a time of 49.47 seconds.  Janine Fajardo grabbed second place In the 100 meter hurdles event, while Lizzie Deutsch (second place) and Allison Hansen (fourth) finished among the top five competitors in the 1500 meters.
 
In field action, Janeka Stokes finished in the top spot with a mark of 1.50 meters in the high jump while teammate Kamryn Daniels grabbed sixth place.  LaTreesha Washington vaulted to a first place finish in pole vault with career best mark of 3.50 meters.
 
"Despite the weather, this meet provided the team with an opportunity to tune up before our conference championships next week," said head coach Gabe Rivera.  "One of the brightest spots of the meet was watching LaTreesha setting a career best and winning the women's pole vault, and also seeing the women win the meet in team scoring."
 
UIC women tallied 139.50 total points for the top spot, 32.5 points better than second place host Valparaiso.  The men accumulated 142 points to finish second among the eight schools in action.
 
In the men's competition, Walmer Saavedra (3:59.50) placed second and Brixton Rill (4:00.75) fourth in the 1500 meter event. Emmanuel Onoh was third in the 100 meter, Mike Meskill finished second in the 400 meter, Alex Bashqawi took second and Tom Brennan fifth in the 800 meters.  In the 400 meter hurdles, Jakob Mogorovic crossed in second place.  Among the field events, Larnell Brown was first in the high jump, Pawel Klimek and Davis Hallberg finished in second and third place in the pole vault.
 
The Flames now gear up for the Horizon League Outdoor Championships on May 5-7 in Youngstown, Ohio.