BLACKSBURG, Va. – The High Point University men's and women's track and field teams claimed both team titles at the Big South Indoor Championships at the Virginia Tech Rector Field House. HPU also claimed titles in five events and placed 24 athletes on the podium in day two action.
Along with team titles,
Nick Lourenco was named the men's Freshman of the Year while
Sydney Horn was decorated as the Most Outstanding Female Performer of the meet, awarded to the athlete who registers the highest-ranking national mark. Head coach
Mike Esposito was named the women's Coach of the Year while
Chris Van Niekerk and
Letizia Marsico were honored on the All-Academic teams.
Head coach
Mike Esposito: "It means a great deal, it's a team win. You're a track and field team, and I think our depth won because we're good everywhere. So, it means quite a bit to win both the men's and women's titles. We like to talk about how sometimes we're the hammer, and sometimes we're the nail, but both build. We like to think we were the hammer today from being the nail quite often. So many people stepped up it's nearly impossible to highlight, it's just our sport. One of the things we're obviously the most proud of is that we have three young ladies going to the National Championships in the (pole) vault, and that's pretty special. But everybody, on both sides, performed."
The day's events began with the men's heptathlon, picking up with the 60m hurdles after finishing four events on day one. The Panthers claimed four of the top-five slots in the hurdle race before sweeping the top-five marks in the pole vault. After a tight race in the 1,000m to finish off the combined events,
Kolt Byer and
Evan Mills ended in a tie, each finishing with 4,939 points. Byers won the tiebreaker while
Felix LeBlanc completed the podium with 4,637 points.
David Caivano posted 4,477 points for fourth place and
Nick Lourenco tallied 4,232 points in his first combined events competition.
In field event action,
Alicia Dawson used her final jump to claim the Big South title in the triple jump to claim 10 points and the win, finishing with a mark of 12.54m.
The High Point women swept the pole vault as well as
Sydney Horn posted a new conference record, school record, and personal best with a mark of 4.50m.
Mackenzie Horn also posted a season-best, clearing 4.31m and tying the 13
th-best mark in NCAA Division, setting herself up for a shot to compete at the National Championships.
Rachel Vesper was third with a mark of 4.21m after locking down her spot at the NCAA Championships last weekend at the VT Challenge.
Anjali Mead was fourth with a mark of 3.86m while
Grady Moyer finished fifth with a mark of 3.46m.
Alex Hoffman posted a personal best in the weight throw for fifth place, finishing with a mark of 17.15m while
Chris Van Niekerk was fourth with a season-best mark of 17.25m.
In running events,
Olive Allen won (4:54.30) the women's mile while
Ashley Jones (4:58.33) finished fourth.
Othmane El Gharissi posted a time of 4:15.60 in the men's mile for fourth palce while
Jake Tarosky finished sixth in 4:17.05.
Terris Burton scored points in the men's 60m hurdles, finishing seventh in 8.49 seconds.
Lindsay Cooper claimed a runner-up finish on the women's side, running to a second-place finish in 8.46 seconds.
Ebba Ahman also scored points in the event, finishing fifth in 8.70 seconds.
The Panther women were also dominant in the 400m dash, once again claiming four of the top-five slots in the final section of the event.
Marissa Blakely won the event with a time of 55.61 seconds, a new indoor school record.
Dae'Nitra Hester was second in 55.70 seconds, Cooper was fourth in 56.71, and
Abi Craig was fifth in 56.52 seconds.
For the Panther men's sprint group,
Ethan Roach broke out of the blocks in the 60m finals, racing to a runner-up finish in 6.76 seconds and just missing the indoor school record set by
Deron Dudley, who finished fourth in the event in 6.78 seconds. Dudley and Roach also competed in the 200m dash, where Dudley finished third (21.26) and Roach was seventh (21.76).
Graham Ferguson added another runner-up finish for the men in the 800m run, crossing the line in 1:54.39 behind Charleston Southern's Rob Howorth. The women claimed four of five top times in the same event as
Nikki Frail was second in 2:12.33, a collegiate best by nearly two seconds. Other HPU finishers in the event were
Olive Allen (3
rd, 2:14.39),
Mikayla Moxley (4
th, 2:15.48), and
Camryn Harper (5
th, 2:15.64).
Ian Miller had a podium finish in the men's 3,000m run, finishing in 8:28.63 for third place while
Lindsey Ickes was second in the same event on the women's side, crossing the line in 9:44.16.
In the final races of the evening, the men's 4x400m relay team of Burton,
Aidan Britt,
Trent Strachan, and Mills finished third with a new school record, shaving off nearly two seconds (3:16.19). The women's team of Blakely, Ahman, Hester, and Cooper were crowned the champions in the event, running in for a time of 3:46.27.
Up Next: High Point women's pole vaulters
Sydney Horn,
Mackenzie Horn, and
Rachel Vesper will compete for a National Championship in Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 9
th-11
th. All three vaulters have cleared at minimum 4.31m this indoor season to secure their spot in the top-16 nationally.
#DefendTheTeam x #GoHPU
