WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. / GREENSBORO, N.C. / ROCK HILL, S.C. - The High Point University women's track and field team continued to build momentum throughout the outdoor season with strong performances across three different meets, highlighted by event wins, top-10 finishes, and key contributions in multiple event groups. The Panthers competed at the Wake Forest Invitational, the Aggie Invitational and sent a group of combined events athletes to the Winthrop Invitational.

Wake Forest Invitational 
At Wake Forest, multiple athletes took home gold led by Ashari Pearson in high jump, Zamesha Myle in the 200m, and Ashlyn Giles in the shot put. Pearson and Myle both posted new personal bests as Pearson cleared 1.67m and Myle clocked a 23.42 time. Giles continued her dominance in the throws with a 16.16m throw in the shot put for first place and a 52.35m throw in the discus for second place.

Three other Panthers joined Myle in the top-10 of the 200m as Kaia Putman placed fourth with a 24.36 time, Kendall Hicks in eighth with a 24.79 time and Quiana Williams in ninth with a 24.85 time. Adding to the top-10 finishes, in the discus and high jump events, Vanessa Kobialka placed eighth in the discus with a 46.72m throw and in the high jump Amelia Moreland placed 10th with a season-best 1.47m clear. 

On the track, Mikayla Moxley placed fourth in her heat in the 1500m open race and recorded a 4:38.76 time. In the 100m hurdles, Gabrielle Crane placed eighth with a 15.57 time. Two Panthers represented well in the 100m dash as Williams placed second with an 11.89 time and Hicks placed fourth with a 12.01 time. 

Aggie Invitational 
The Panthers carried their energy into the Aggie Invitational, where the pole vault squad delivered another strong performance of the weekend. Emily Romano finished second with a clearance of 3.97 meters, followed closely by Lily Houston, who matched the same height. Kaitlin Richards added a fourth-place finish at 3.76 meters, giving HPU three athletes in the top four. 

On the track, Paul kicked off Saturday morning in the 100m hurdles and after posting a personal best in the prelims with a 13.57 time she placed fifth in the finals with an even faster time of 13.55 to add another solid performance to her season. In the next event on the track, the 4x100m relay team set a new program record of 44.89 seconds led by Myle, Williams, Crane and Putman. Moxley rounded out the events on the track for the Panthers in the 800 meters and recorded a 2:19.28 time.

Winthrop Invitational 
At Winthrop, two athletes competed in their first heptathlon's of their collegiate careers as Jhanelle Thomas placed first overall with 4,081 points and Layla Jones placed second with 3,462 points. Thomas placed first in four of the seven events and registered new personal bests in the shot put (8.71m) and javelin (17.00m). Her largest amount of points came from the 100m hurdles with a 14.89 time. Jones registered new personal bests in the shot put (8.11m), 800m (2:38.67) and long jump (4.74m). She also picked up her largest amount of points in the 100m hurdles and clocked a 15.09 time.

UP NEXT:
High Point will compete next at the Charlotte Invitational on April 24-25.

#GoHPU #DefendTheTeam