CHAMPAIGN, Ill.- The Milwaukee women's track & field team was back in action for the Fighting Illini Twilight hosted by Illinois on Saturday. Six Panthers moved up in the program's all-time outdoor top-10 in an outstanding day of competition.
 
"With the Horizon League Championships two weeks away, today was exactly the progress we plan for as coaches," said head coach Andrew Basler. "There were a lot of career and season bests across all events."
 
Climbing up to second place in school's rankings in the 400m dash was Katie Burns who finished runner-up in the event at 54.72.
 
"Katie ran a great 400m race for huge personal best and making a run at the school record." Basler added.
 
Burns then joined Angelica Refinski, Isabel Roloff, and Victoria Evtimov in the 4x100m relay, where they combined for the second-best time in program history at 46.13.
 
In the 100m hurdles, Natalie Block led the way for Milwaukee with a time of 13.73. Following on Block's heels was Anna Szepieniec who broke through the 14 second barrier for the first time in her career to move herself up to fifth-place all-time.
 
Making the jump up to eighth all-time in the 3000m steeplechase was Sara Jochims coming in at 11:22.87.
 
"Today was a great breakthrough race for Anna to get under that 14 second mark for the first time," Basler continued. "Sara also had a big time drop in the steeplechase that will give her a ton of momentum heading into conference."
 
Morgan Pilate had a second-place performance in the triple jump, using a tremendous leap of 12.40m to move into the sixth spot on the all-time leaderboard.
 
"Morgan had a really impressive outdoor best, jumping from over a foot back from foul." Basler concluded.
 
Representing the Black & Gold in the pole vault, Hailey Soriaga cleared 3.67m to tie herself for seventh place in the program's rankings.
 
Anelise Egge improved on her career-best mark in the 1500m run that has her third-place all-time, reaching the finish in 4:29.03.
 
Running the first 5000m run of her career was Cailin Kinas who took third place with a time of 17:43.28.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Panthers will split for two more meets next weekend with Kentucky's Jim Green Invitational from May 2-3 at Shivley Track & Field Stadium in Lexington, Ky. Wisconsin's Badger Challenge will be taking place May 2 at 1:00 p.m. at McClimon Track Complex in Madison.
 
The weekend will be the last competition the teams see before the Horizon League Championships Scheduled for May 9-11 at Farmers National Bank Field in Youngstown, Ohio.