ROCK HILL, S.C. – The High Point University men's track and field team won its third-straight Big South Outdoor Championship on Friday night. Despite not winning an event on the track all day, the Panthers coasted to a 36-point win over second-place Campbell with 239 total points.
Nick Lourenco was named the Freshman of the Year while
Graham Ferguson earned Scholar-Athlete honors. Head coach
Mike Esposito shared the co-Coach of the Year award.
Coach Esposito: "This is not an individual event, it's a team sport. We may not have won a bunch of races, but our depth and our overall team concept is what won. And that's a credit to our staff and our kids. We have a tremendous coaching staff and a tremendous group of kids; I can't say enough about all the people that helped us get here."
While HPU did not claim any first-place finishes on the track,
Chris Van Niekerk claimed the first individual title of the day in the discus, tossing for 52.56m.
Alex Hoffman finished fifth at 45.97m.
In the high jump,
Michael Henson exploded for a new personal best 2.06m in the high jump while finishing fourth overall. Henson also just missed the school record by one centimeter after besting his previous record by 10 centimeters.
On the track, the men's 4x100m relay team of
Isaiah Muse,
Aidan Britt,
Trent Strachan, and
Terris Burton II ran to a fifth-place finish in 42.29 seconds. Strachan also picked up a point in the 110m high hurdles, finishing with a new personal best time of 15.08 seconds while Britt finished sixth in the 400m (48.86s) for three points as well.
Ethan Roach qualified for the 100m dash finals on Thursday during the preliminary round, but irritated a pre-existing hamstring injury at the finish. Returning on Friday, Roach finished the race in the finals through the injury to help in the team race, giving HPU one point despite being unable to sprint or run.
The men's 1,500m runners followed up with big points as
Othmane El Gharissi and
Jake Tarosky finished third and fourth, respectively, while
Graham Ferguson was sixth.
In the men's 800m run,
Jonny House finished as the runner-up in 1:52.35 while Ferguson was third in 1:52.91. Following the 800m, Burton returned to the track to compete in the 400m hurdles. He finished with a time of 52.44 seconds for third place while he currently sits 42
nd in the East region. Strachan was also seventh in 56.12 seconds.
With two events to go, High Point had safely secured the championship, but the Panthers kept pushing. HPU finished with three of its four runners in the top-eight finishes in the 5,000m run.
Hunter Steinau finished as the runner-up in 14:33.27 while
El Gharissi was third in 14:37.53.
The men's 4x400m relay team of Burton, Britt, House, and
Evan Mills closed down the night with a runner-up finish in 3:12.76 behind UNC Asheville.
Up Next: A handful of High Point University track and field athletes will compete at Diesel's Last Chance Meet on Sunday, May 14
th, in an effort to qualify as many athletes for the First Round of the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Field events are set to begin at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday while running events are slated for a 3:00 p.m. start.
#DefendTheTeam x #GoHPU
