Macon-Ford Wins; Eutectic Women Smash Four Records to Open Indoor Season

BLOOMINGTON, ILL. – The Eutectic women's track and field team opened the indoor season on Friday evening at the Titan First Chance Meet hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University. The team returned home boasting a first-place finish by Leah Macon-Jones and four shattered school records. No team scores were kept at the meet, which included 11 mostly NAIA and NCAA Div. 3 schools.

MEET HIGHLIGHTS:

• In her first meet since the 2025 NAIA outdoor national championships in the spring, Leah Macon-Ford returned where she left off, beating out 17 other sprinters to win the 60m dash. Her top time of 7.79 qualified her for the finals, where she beat out the other seven finalists to win the event at 7.81. She currently holds the 10^th-fastest 60m time in the NAIA. Macon-Ford also finished fifth in the 200m dash (of 26) with a time of 26.62. She holds the UHSP records in both events.
• Freshmen Abigael Achuo and Rylee Eng immediately made their marks on the UHSP program in the horizontal jumps. Achuo became the first-ever Eutectic to break 5-meters in the indoor long jump, while Eng improved the Eutectic triple jump record by 1.5 meters. Achuo's new school record mark of 5.03m (16'06") was good enough for sixth place of 21 long jumpers at the meet. Eng took fourth place of 14 triple jumpers with a program record jump of 10.58m (34'8.5"). Eng also cracked the Eutectic All-Time Top-Five in the long jump with a leap of 4.91m (16'1.5") for ninth place overall.
• Emerald Flores broke the Eutectic record for the indoor 400m dash by finishing seventh of 19 sprinters with a time of 1:06.69. The time edges out the previous UHSP record set by teammate Victoria Renteria last season by .17 seconds. Renteria finished 10^th at the meet at 1:07.77.
• Flores, Achuo, Sydney Lowis, and Adison Plazek combined to break the school record in the 4x400m relay. The quartet finished third at the meet with a time of 4:23.65, smashing the previous record set last season by five seconds.
• Seniors Taylor Shobe and Mariah Scott both qualified for the 60m Hurdles finals at the meet. Shobe qualified with the third-fastest time of 19 hurdlers at 9.49 and Scott was seventh at 10.12. In the finals, the two ran 9.60 and 10.29, respectively, to maintain their finishes of third and seventh.
• In her first meet as a Eutectic, newcomer Shamari Long qualified for the 60m finals, finishing sixth overall with a time of 8.13. The time puts her as second on the Eutectic all-time list behind Macon-Ford's record of 7.66 set last season. During her eighth-place finish in the 200m dash, she clocked a time of 28.00 to become UHSP's second-fastest ever in the event. 

UP NEXT:

The Eutectics will break for the holidays before returning in 2026 for the John Craft Invite hosted by Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., on Saturday, Jan. 17.