HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men's track and field team scored 174.5 points en route to a third-place finish at the second annual Meet of Champions, presented by Norris Woody. The Panthers won five events including the 3,000m steeplechase, shot put, 400m hurdles, pole vault, and discus.
Day 1 Recap
Head coach
Mike Esposito: "Today we hosted a track meet and kept score as sports were intended to be. Today, as a team, both men's and women's programs go beat. We believe it is very important for our kids to be exposed to true team competition. We as coaches need to be held accountable more than just on conference weekend. Our facilities are top notch, the presentation by our support staff is exceptional, and the weather certainly cooperated as well. We certainly want to thank Mr. Norris Woody for his generous contributions to our programs. We could not host such a high-end meet without his support. Moving forward, we are approaching our championship season. The foundation has been laid throughout the year for what is directly in front of us. It's time for us to take advantage of the months of preparation. In the field of opportunity, it's plowing time again."
With field events beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, the Panthers wasted no time claiming important points at the throwing pits.
Chris Van Niekerk won the men's shot put and the men's discus, finishing with a mark of 17.71m in the shot before posting a season-best 58.08m mark later in the afternoon in the discus. Van Niekerk's new season-best mark moved him up to the top-15 in the NCAA East region with the 12
th-best toss of the year.
Alex Hoffman also had a record day in the field, finishing second in the hammer throw with a new personal best of 58.17m, a new best by five meters and a new school record as well. Hoffman was also fourth in the shot put (15.52m) and sixth in the discus (45.50m) to score 16 team points for HPU.
Ryan Tenor Jr. finished fourth in the javelin in his first meet of the season, tossing 59.61m.
At the jumps, HPU pole vaulters claimed first and second place in the event while HPU had five additional top-5 finishers among the high jump, long jump, and triple jump to claim big points. In the vault,
Jackson Tuomey and
Nick Lourenco went 1-2 after both cleared 4.95m.
Adam Craig was sixth with a season-best mark of 4.80m and
Maxwell Robinson cleared 4.50m for a top-10 finish.
Michael Henson posted three top-five finishes in the other jumps events, finishing fourth in the high jump (1.90m), fourth in the triple jump with a personal best (14.35m), and fifth in the long jump (6.84m).
Larry Coaxum was another top-five finisher for High Point in the horizontal jumps, posting a third-place finish in the long jump (6.88m) and a fifth-place finish in the triple jump (14.26m).
In the non-scoring decathlon,
Evan Mills finished with the top overall point total (6,531), edging teammate
Felix LeBlanc, who finished with a personal-best 6,494 points, by 37 points. It came down to the final race (1,500m), with both Panthers competing for the gold medal. While Mills held a slight lead through the first three laps, LeBlanc kicked hard to take a larger lead coming around to the final turn. But Mills had a gutsy finish to retake the lead with a lean at the finish line, holding on for the win in the 1,500m and the decathlon as a whole.
Kolt Byers finished fourth at the end of the day with 6,171 points while
Eric Garguilo was fifth with 4,577 points.
Jake Tarosky led the HPU men off with another event win in the steeplechase, finishing with a personal best 9:14.55 while
Aiden Morrison was third in 9:29.22, a season best.
Evan J Mills was fifth in 9:44.13 while
Lorenzo Botter was seventh in 10:10.87.
The HPU men's 4x100m relay team of
Isiah Muse,
Ethan Roach,
Aidan Britt, and
Terris Burton II finished second in 41.74 seconds to pick up eight points for the team. The other relay team, the 4x400m also composed of Burton, Britt, Muse, and
Trent Strachan, finished fourth in 3:19.77. Burton won the 400m hurdles in 52.13 seconds and was eighth in the 110m high hurdles (15.53s) for a four-event day.
Graham Ferguson ran two new personal bests in his two events on the day, finishing second in the 1,500m with a time of 3:47.57 and fourth in the 800m in 1:51.90.
Hunter Steinau was the runner-up in the 5,000m run (14:27.72) while
Ian Miller was fifth (14:36.46) and
Spencer Smucker was sixth (14:56.81).
Up Next: High Point travels to Virginia next weekend for the UVA Challenge. The meet will take place from Thursday, April 20
th, to Saturday, April 22
nd.
#DefendTheTeam x #GoHPU
