LYNCHBURG, Va. / BOSTON, Mass. - The High Point University men's and women's track and field teams competed at the Liberty Kickoff at Liberty Unviersity and at the Sharon-Colyear Danville Season Opener at Boston University this past weekend to jump start the indoor track and field season. 

At the Liberty Kickoff, which took place on December 5-7, multiple athletes finished in the top five in their respective events, with three school records being broken. Cole Wilson broke his program record in the Heptathlon with a score of 5772, which is the NCAA leading mark. The 4x400 men's relay team of Marquis Belle, Kelly Bell, Tim Brown, and Aidan Britt shattered the previous record set at the 2023 Big South Championships with a time of 3:12.43 and is currently ranked 6th in the NCAA. The freshman Tim Brown also broke the 300m dash record as his first meet as a Panther with a 33.56 time.
 
In the women's running events, Quiana Williams and Dae'Nitra Hester qualified for finals in the women's 60m dash with times of 7.63 and 7.67 respectively. Williams placed 7th overall with a time of 7.63 and Hester placed 8th overall at 7.69. Lindsay Cooper qualified for finals in the women's 60m hurdles and placed 7th overall with a time of 8.77, and Ebba Ahman finished 10th overall with a time of 9.01.

In the men's running events, Marquis Belle placed 9th overall in the 200m dash with a new personal best of 21.90. Myles Darroch was right behind Belle with a time of 21.94, coming in 11th in his first meet with the Panthers. In the men's 300m dash, Aidan Britt followed up Brown's program record with a time of 34.28, coming in 4th place. Simeon Hayward came in 3rd in the men's 800m run with a new personal best of 1:56.48. In the men's 3000m run, Aiden Morrison clocked a new personal best at 8:46.91, coming in at tenth.
 
In the field events, Sydney Horn placed first overall in pole vault with a jump of 4.31m, the NCAA leading mark, followed by Rachel Vesper in 6th with a height of 3.80m. Eva Piscitelli placed first in the lower section on Thursday with a personal best of 3.60m in her freshman debut. In the high jump, Sydney Koker placed second with a height of 1.75m, which is currently 10th in the NCAA, followed by Ashari Pearson, who came in 4th at 1.70m for her first meet. Shaun Thomas won the men's high jump with a height of 2.10m which is ranked 6th in the NCAA, followed by Alex Constantinou, who finished 4th, clearing 2.00m. Jackson Tuomey won the men's pole vault with a height of 5.20m which is ranked 6th in the NCAA. Justin Sluijter won the men's long jump section with a mark of 7.36m for his first meet in a High Point jersey and is ranked 12th in the NCAA. Mobu Nwakor made his freshman debut and placed 6th in the triple jump with a mark of 14.34m. In men's shot put, Alex Hoffman placed 6th with a throw of 15.53m followed by Caleb Barley with a throw of 14.12m and Brad Weiner with a mark of 12.60m. In men's weight throw Hoffman placed 9th with a mark of 15.10m, Caleb Barley followed with a throw of 13.96, Brad Weiner placed 14th with a throw of 13.63m.
 
In the combined events, in the men's group A, Wilson placed 1st overall with a mark of 5772, which broke his school record, the Big South indoor record, the U23 Canadian Record, and posted the NCAA leading mark. Wilson set three new personal bests in the 60 meter dash (7.12 seconds), shot put (14.74m) and 60 meters hurdles (8.35 seconds). Mauricio Galindo Vega is currently ranked 15th in the NCAA with a score of 5074 in the Heptathlon. In Group B, William Reeves came in 8th place for a new personal best with a score of 4443. Gianna Paul placed 8th in the women's Group A section with a score of 3382. Paul opened the meet with a new personal best of 8.69 in the 60 meters hurdles and cleared 1.70 in the high jump. In Group B, Kaitlyn Greene and Rene Shukla broke the top 10 with scores of 2711 and 2699 in 8th and 9th place, respectively.

Rounding out the weekend, a select group of men's and women's distance runners competed at the Sharon-Colyear Danville Season Opener on Saturday afternoon. For the women, Alyssa Hendrix posted a new person best in the 5000m race with a 16:29.99 time. Brianna Malone also finished in the top 100 with a time of 16:42.32. On the men's side, Jason Thomson broke the HPU program record in the men's 3000m race with a time of 8:06.95 while Graham Ferguson recorded a personal best 8:15.92. Hunter Steinau capped off the night in the final heat of the 5000m race with a personal best time of 14:11.57 beating his previous time by 12+ seconds.

UP NEXT: 
High Point has a month off until January when the team travels to Blacksburg, Virginia for the Virginia Tech Invite on January 17-18.