ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Milwaukee men's and women's distance runners competed at the WashU Distance Carnival on Friday evening, setting many new personal bests in the process.
 
In the women's 5000m, Emily Burns took 15 seconds off her previous personal best to break the 18-minute mark for the first time at 17:52.33. She finished 27^th overall in the event. Madison Hughes also posted a personal outdoor best in the 5000m, placing third in her heat and 46th overall at 18:29.56.
 
"I thought Emily Burns ran a really solid race and was one of three personal bests on the day," head coach Andrew Basler said. "The distance athletes don't typically get a lot of opportunity to run the 5k and the 10k and I thought they took advantage of it today."
 
Alayna Franson finished 14th in the steeplechase, recording a strong time of 11:27.35.
 
Meg Swietlik competed in her first meet of the track season, running in the 10,000m. She finished 24th with a time of 38:25.18.
 
On the men's side, both Ian Nadolski and Bryce Tome set new personal bests in the 10,000m. Nadolski shaved 47 seconds off his previous best to finish 23rd at 30:57.34. Tome also cut over 40 seconds from his prior top time, placing 41st in the event at 31:37.53.
 
Danny Browne nearly posted a personal best in the 5000m, finishing 39th with a time of 15:05.93. Joshua Freitag and Spencer Currie also competed in the event, posting 72nd- and 75th-place finishes, respectively.
 
In the men's steeplechase, Corey Thornton finished 18 seconds faster than his season opener a year ago, placing 12th overall with a time of 9:38.99.
 
"I thought in two situations today was good to see perseverance," Basler said. "With Corey Thornton's race, him falling in the water barrier, he showed a lot of grit and got back in the race. He still ran a faster time now than he did last year. It was awesome to see Meg Swietlik race again. We weren't concerned about the time as it was her first outdoor race in three years and the first time she raced in a uniform in a year. Just to be able to overcome setbacks and adversity that's rewarding even when the times aren't there."
 
The rest of Milwaukee's team will compete on the second day of the Redbird Invite in Normal, Ill. Saturday afternoon.