The Panther men’s and women’s track and field team split events this weekend. The track teams competed at the Notre Dame Meyo Invite in South Bend, Ind. and the field athletes traveled to the Nebraska Huskers invite.

In an interview, head track and field coach Dave Paulsen said that he was excited to see how his athletes would compete this weekend coming off great performances at home and in Iowa City.

He also said that he is anxious to see how his athletes will perform coming down the home stretch towards the conference meet.

Both teams combined for 12 finishes in the top eight places of their respective events. The top Panther finish in the Husker Invitational was Keegan Tritle, who finished third in the shot put with a throw of 18.36 meters.

In South Bend, the best finish in the races was junior Connor Ham, who placed third in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.03 seconds.

For the women, Maddie McCalla finished fifth place in the 400-meter dash with her personal best of 55.34, which improved her time by .23 of a second.

Alanna Nietert also clinched fifth place in the weight throw with a personal best throw of 61-6.75.

Other Panther runners who finished in the top eight included Cade Kirkpatrick (fourth in long jump), Tayshaun Cooper (sixth in the 200 meter), Evan Long (sixth in the 400 meter), Lyndsie Schinkel (seventh in the 800 meter) and Cameron Bauer rounding off at eighth in the pole vault.

19 UNI student-athletes improved their personal records and as well as their top-20 rankings in the MVC.

The Panthers will split again in the upcoming weekend as they travel to the South Dakota Classic and the Iowa State Classic on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8 and 9.