BLACKSBURG, Va. – The High Point University women's track and field posted 64.5 points in day one action at the Big South Indoor Championships at Vector Field House. Radford scored 34.5 points for the second spot in the standings while Charleston Southern (35.5), Campbell (32.5), and UNC Asheville (22) rounded out the top-five.
The day's events began with the women's pentathlon where
Lilly Wolf picked up a third-place overall finish for the Panthers. Wolf scored a season-best 2,966 points with top-three finishes in the 60m hurdles, high jump, and shot put.
Sydney Koker broke her own school record in the high jump en route to her first Big South Indoor Championship. She won the event with a mark of 1.78m.
Marissa Blakely was tied for fourth in the event (1.60m) and
Ebba Ahman was seventh with a mark of 1.55m.
Alicia Dawson was the runner-up in the women's long jump with a mark of 5.98m while
Letizia Marsico was seventh in the shot put with a mark of 13.62m.
In running events,
Lindsay Cooper qualified second for the 60m hurdle finals in 8.49 seconds while Ahman qualified fifth in 8.69 seconds. Cooper also qualified for finals in the 400m dash (2
nd, 56.32s) and 200m dash (8
th, 24.99s) with teammates
Dae'Nitra Hester and Blakely
. Hester qualified for the 400m dash with the top time and a season-best time of (56.07s) and the sixth overall time in the 200m (24.72s). Both were season-bests for Hester and the Panthers. Blakely was third in both the 400m (56.34) and 200m (24.52s), also posting season bests, while
Abi Craig also qualified eighth into the 400m finals with a time of 56.93 seconds in prelims. Each HPU women's 400m qualifier won their section of prelims.
In the women's 800m, High Point claimed four of the top-five qualifying spots as
Olive Allen,
Nikki Frail,
Mikayla Moxley, and
Camryn Harper will race in the final section tomorrow (Saturday, February 25
th) at 3:35 p.m. Allen was the top qualifying Panther and second overall with a time of 2:11.79, just missing her personal best by 0.08 seconds, while Frail was third overall with a personal best, 2:12.82. Moxley was fourth in 2:15.07, another personal best, and Harper was fifth with a time of 2:15.24.
HPU claimed the top-two spots in the women's 5,000m run to pick up 18 points for the team as
Lindsey Ickes won the event and
Katie Taylor gutted out a second-place finish, passing Radford's Chloe Wellings in the final 100m for the silver medal. Ickes finished in 16:43.74 while Taylor crossed the finish line in 16:47.87, a personal best by nearly 30 seconds.
Anna Ritter was sixth in the event, picking up more points for the Panthers as she finished with a personal-best time of 17:35.57 while
Alyssa Deeds was the final point-scorer in the event, finishing eighth in 18:19.55.
The women's distance medley relay team of Harper, Craig,
Joanna Poland, and
Paris Stankewich ran to claim a gold medal, finishing with a season-best time of 12:03.44. After trailing Radford by nearly 50m at the completion of the 400m leg, Poland passed the Radford runner and passed the baton to Stankewich, who kept the Highlanders safely behind for the entirety of the 1,600m leg to hold on for the win.
Up Next: High Point continues to battle for another Big South title tomorrow at Vector Field House. Combined events are set to begin at 10:00 a.m. while field events will start at 1:00 p.m. with running events beginning at 3:00 p.m.
#DefendTheTeam x #GoHPU
