CARBONDALE, Ill. - Senior Chiamaka Obi led the Austin Peay State University women's track and field team at Southern Illinois' Saluki Open, Saturday, at the SIU Rec Center.

Obi finished second in the 400-meter dash (57.45) and 10th in the 200-meter dash (26.11) to highlight three Lady Govs top-10 finishes in the track events.. Leigha Tolliver also earned an eighth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best 9.44 time.

"Chiamaka had the best finish of the day," head coach Doug Molnar said, "but more importantly, she's ahead of where she was this time last year. If she can keep this up, she'll be in good shape at having a shot at an NCAA provisional mark."

Austin Peay saw the return of Keyvia Davis in the jumps after a two-year hiatus. Davis finished sixth (5.54m) in the long jump, exceeding her previous best of 5.31 set at the Saluki Fast Start in December. The jump also became the Lady Govs season's best.

Even with the success of Davis and Obi, Molnar was clear that there was still improvement to be made with a young group of throwers, as well as with the relay team. While freshman Destiny Wilks set a personal best in the shot put (10.58m), she fell short of weight-throw mark, coming in at 11.33m.

"It was good to see the return of Keyvia Davis - she make a good one-two punch in the jumps along with Cenitra Hudson and Tolliver," Molnar said. "We met our goal of building on what we've been doing. We started out slow, early in the day, but got better with each event, it seemed.

"We're going to get better in the field events. As our freshman continue to learn the events, we'll see improvement. I think we're in good shape."

-AP-