Chester's Landon and Wingerter help SIU men's track win Don DeNoon Invitational
<p dir="ltr"><span>CARBONDALE -- The SIU Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Teams both won the team titles at the recent Don DeNoon Invitational Track and Field meet.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The event is in its second year as the Don DeNoon Invitational, as it was previously named the Saluki Invitational.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The SIU men scored 127 points as a team to win the meet, while the Saluki women scored 140 points in their victory.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Helping the SIU men to win their division were Chester natives Kyle Landon and Issiac Wingerter. Landon competed in the long jump, earning points for SIU, but his big championship event was in the high jump.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>He cleared 7-1.75 on his third attempt to beat out 15 other high jumpers for the win. The win at SIU was his third-straight high jump victory of the indoor season, and earned him the national rank of No. 5 in the NCAA standings as of February 4. </span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Wingerter, a sophomore, competed in the heptathlon, finishing runner-up in his first year as a varsity athlete.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Last year as a freshman, Wingerter was a redshirt athlete for SIU track and field. He competed in several events as an independent athlete and he practiced with the team on a regular basis.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The heptathlon is an event in which one individual athlete competes in seven different events over the course of the two-day meet.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>“It is very demanding, but the seven events are usually divided between the two days of the meet and I train very hard,” Wingerter said, when asked about the workload.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The seven events of the heptathlon include the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meter run.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>“We just do the seven events indoors,” Wingerter said. “When we start the outdoor portion of the season, we compete in 10 events, or the decathlon.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>“That is a bit more strenuous, but I love it”.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>At the DeNoon Invite, Wingerter recorded the following scores in his seven events to earn the runner-up position and important team points: 60-meter dash (7.52); long jump (19’-4”); shot put (36’-4.75”); high jump (5’-8.75”); 60-meter hurdles (9.51), pole vault (12’-1.50”) and 1,000-meter run (2:57.02).</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Both Wingerter and Landon expressed they will be glad when the outdoor season begins so they can out in the fresh air and under the bright, sunny skies of Southern Illinois.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Landon competed in the Music City Classic, hosted by Vanderbilt University, in Nashville last weekend, where he finished runner-up to Georgia’s Keenon Laine in the high jump with a height of 2.19 meters and sixth in the long jump (7.36m).</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Up next for the Salukis is an all-day meet at Eastern Illinois University Friday.</span>