YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The UIC men's and women's track and field teams opened up postseason competition on Saturday with the opening day of the 2022 Horizon League Track & Field Championships.
 
"We had some great performances today after some situations that really went against us," said head coach Ashley Lucas. "We had a ton of personal bests today which is what you want to see at a championship. Biggest performance today was Teresa getting fourth in the 5k, running a big PR and moving up to second in UIC history. Also, the DMRs ran awesome with the men getting second and the women getting third. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
 
Mejia claimed fourth in the women's 5k with a final time of 17:28.13, topping her previous personal best of 17:45.06.
 
Max Rivera moved on to the finals of the men's 60m dash, running a qualifying time of 7.03 to move in in the No. 8 position. Dalton Burk finished in 7.08 seconds in the event to just miss out on Saturday's final. Rivera also qualified for the finals of the men's 200m, crossing the line in 22.23 to qualify in eighth.
 
The Flames dominated the men's and women's DMR events, with the quartet of Drey Maton, Trevor Tousana, Tre Rivers and Dathan Maton claiming second in a time of 10:15.87. On the women's side, UIC's Taylor Frommer, Amya Hargrove, Lia Skofous and Cailyn Persinger claimed third place, crossing the line in 12:21.26.
 
Bailey Moran punched her ticket to the finals of the women's 400m, qualifying in seventh position with a qualifying time of 57.59.
 
Trevor Tousana just missed out on qualifying for the final of the men's 400m, finishing in ninth-place in 49.64.
 
A majority of the conference hardware will be handed out on Sunday in the final day of competition.