HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University Track & Field programs hosted the annual Bob Davidson Team Challenge on March 21-22 at Vert Stadium, welcoming seven teams to High Point. The High Point men's team totaled 235.5 points to take first place while the women's team totaled 123.5 points for second place, behind Akron with 142.5 points.

"It was a beautiful day here in High Point and a great way to kick the season off," Head Coach Mike Esposito stated. "The men dominated and that's what our sport should be. It should be scored and team oriented. We have a really good team on both genders and we had some near first round marks which is pretty good for the first meet. I would like to thank all of the staff and everyone who helped host the meet... it is quite a big task and it takes a lot of people to pull it off successfully so i appreciate everyone from every department pitching in. We've got a lot of young athletes who are competing really well. We're a little nicked up right now so we need to address that and get everyone healthy and when we do that, we're going to have a really special spring."
 
On Friday, the meet opened with multiple field events. For High Point, three Panthers placed first through third in the men's javelin including, Jake Gherardi with a personal best 61.41m throw followed by Drew Noblet with a 60.73m throw and Justin Sluijter with a 59.37m throw.
 
On the women's side, two Panthers placed in the top 10 in the javelin as Moriah Evans threw 38.26m for sixth place and Kelly Chaballa threw 37.16m for seventh place.
 
In the women's hammer throw, Jill Stroup opened her freshman outdoor season with a 48.62m throw to place ninth. In the men's hammer throw, two Panthers placed in the top 10, including Alex Hoffman with a 53.66m throw, freshman Bradley Weiner with a personal best 47.99m and freshman Dom Libretto with a 44.46m throw.
 
On Saturday the meet kicked off with field events. Shaun Thomas secured first place in the men's high jump with a 2.08m clearance. Alex Constantinou took second with a 2.03m bar. For the women, Ashari Pearson tied for third place with Elon's Lizzie Lopez, clearing 1.66m.
 
In the long jump, Gianna Paul jumped a personal best 5.79m for second place. Sluijter took first place in the men's long jump with a 7.55m jump. In the men's triple jump, Mobu Nwakor jumped 14.23m for third place.
 
Two Panthers from the women's pole vault team placed in the top five. Emily Romano cleared 3.87m for third place while Lily Houston placed fifth going 3.72m. In the men's pole vault, Jason Olivera Jr. cleared 4.97m to place second followed by Jackson Tuomey in fourth place clearing 4.82m.
 
In the two men's throwing events on Saturday, Hoffman had the best throw for the Panthers in both. In the shot put he threw 16.11m for sixth place and in the discus, he threw a personal best 47.25m for sixth place.
 
In the women's 3000m steeplechase, Alyssa Hendrix took home first place with ease clocking a 10:37.63 time. Alice Jones crossed the finish line in fourth place with an 11:14.63 time.
 
It was all High Point in the men's 3000m steeplechase as Aidan Morrison took first place with a 9:15.53 time followed by Evan Mills with a 9:48.39 time and Alex Contreras with a 10:14:85 time.
 
The HPU women's 4x100m relay team placed in second behind Akron with a 46.53 time.
 
Charli Montalvo had the best run in the women's 1500m race with a 4:37.57 time. In the men's 1500m, HPU had two athletes take first and second place as Jason Thomson recorded a 3:49.54 time and Hunter Steinau recorded a 3:50.15 time for a personal best.
 
In the women's hurdle events, Ebba Ahman placed first in the 400m hurdles with a 1:00.26 time and placed sixth in the 100m hurdles with a 14.05 time. Paul placed seventh with a new personal best 14.13.
 
Antonio Votour and Dominiq Northington placed fourth and fifth in the in the men's 110m hurdles clocking 14.78 and 14.92 times respectively. In the men's 400m hurdles, Allon Sweeney placed sixth with a 56.75 time.
 
The program record was broken in back-to-back events on the track. Tim Brown broke the men's 400m record with a 46.84 time. Quiana Williams stepped on the track for the 100m dash and set the program record with an 11.50 time. Keshon Sapp finished fourth in the men's 100m with a 10.46 time.
 
In both the men's and women's 800m events, the Panthers took first place. Brianna Malone clocked a 2:10.19 followed by Nikki Frail with a 2:11.55 time for second place. The Panther men swept the podium as Graham Ferguson clocked a 1:5012 personal best, Hunter Steinau clocked a 1:53.59 and Jake Weakland clocked a personal best, 1:53.88.
 
Williams competed in the women's 200m race and crossed the finish line in second place with a 23.81 time. In the men's 200m dash, Sapp also placed second with a 21.06 time.
 
Four Panthers raced in the 5000m event led by Gavin Stevens with a 14:55.12 time. Ari Snyder crossed in second place with a 15:27.42 time. Jake Fiorillo and Ethan Tharp placed fourth and fifth in the race.
 
Rounding out the track events, both the men's and women's 4x400m relay teams finished in third place. The women recorded a 3:52.96 time and the men's B team recorded a 3:19.47 time.
 
UP NEXT: High Point will send a select group of athletes to the Texas Relays beginning on March 26 and going through March 29. Another select group of athletes will attend the Raleigh Relays on March 27-March 29 while another group will compete at the Davidson Relays on Saturday March 29.