WINSTON SALEM, N.C. - The South Atlantic Conference day one of its second-ever indoor championships on Saturday, Feb. 23 from the JDL Fast Track as Carson-Newman put a number of individuals in operation for tomorrow's finale alongside Luke Greer winning a league championship.
The Northhampton, England native took home the top spot for the title and All-Conference performance in the 5000-meter run with a time of 14:58.74, a new SAC Championship record.
Another accolade added to the resume. @LukeGreer_ grabs first place in the 5000-meter run at the @SAC_Athletics Indoor Championships for @CN_Track! pic.twitter.com/Czw0UBgQza
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 24, 2019
Greer was also a member of the Eagle men who grabbed second-place collecting eight points in the 4000m DMR as Cameron McKinley, Christian Stumpf, Caleb Agee, and the aforementioned Greer completed the event in 10:31.18 to grab a new school record shattering the previous time which sat at 11:01.98 from earlier this season.
Samantha Gudger collected second-place in the long jump to collect eight team points for C-N after clearing 5.56 meters which also earned the senior All-Conference honors. The Bristol, Tenn. native was runner up to Queens jumper Elise Ulseth who hit a mark of 5.68 meters.
Three jumpers for the program finished inside the top-five with last year's Indoor Athlete of the Year Kristofer Potts-Howard earning second-place clearing 7.09 meters. He was edged by Wingate's Andrew Spence who cleared 7.11 meters.
Jahvad McDermott and Ray Artybridge finished fourth and fifth respectively with jumps of 6.94 and 6.86 meters as the Eagles earned a total of 17 points in the event.
Freshman Rachel Strayer led all C-N runners in the preliminary one mile run with a seventh-place time at 5:23.18 to qualify for the finals run scheduled for tomorrow.
Sophomore Tia Davis was the lone Eagle to reach the finals in the 60-meter dash marking her second-straight appearance in the event after a 7.84 sprint. The Ootelwah, Tenn. product also reached the finals in the 200-meter dash with a fifth-place finish at a time of 26.07 seconds.
The Eagles will have two sprinters in the finals on the men's side as fellow sophomore Devon Moore earned second-place after a time of 6.84 seconds behind PJ Lotharp of L-R at 6.81 seconds. Freshman Toot Johnson earned a new career-best as an Eagle rounding out the top-eight that is needed for a spot in the finals at 6.91 seconds. His previous low time came back during the Finn Pincus Invitational from Jan. 11-12 when he ran the event at 7.03.
Johnson and Moore will also head to the 200-meter finals with second and third-place finishes respectively with times of 22.20. The time was also a new low for Johnson, who also plays running back at C-N, whose previous best sat at 22.79 seconds.
Amy Zadroga grabbed six points and third-place for C-N in the pole vault after clearing 3,35 meters on her first attempt before missing out on all three at 3.50m which Queens Aintzane Castalarenas cleared on her first attempt for the championship. The clearance gives Zadroga All-Conference honors for the second-straight year.
Additional qualifiers for finals events for C-N included Caleb Agee who qualified for the 400-meter with a fifth-place finish at 51.17 seconds.
The women's foursome in the 4000m DMR of Lindsay Williams, Abby Hegarty, Klara Naude, and Savannah McCarter grabbed fifth-place and four points with a time of 13:16.85.
"Today was just the start to where I want us to be," Coach David Needs said. "I really want to build on today's performance with another strong day tomorrow. It was great to see some of our kids really step up on a big stage placing a few in final events for tomorrow."
The final day of the SAC Indoor Championships will begin tomorrow at 9:00 a.m with the women's shot put.
-CN-