COLUMBIA, S.C. - Facing top Division-I and Division-II talent, Devon Moore picked up a pair of top-five finishes at the UofSC Invitational in Columbia, S.C. on Friday, Feb. 18.
Moore's day began in the prelims of the 60-meter dash, where the senior out of Baxley, Ga. finished third out of 22 runners to move on to the finals of the event with a time of 6.91 seconds. His teammate Sterling Melancon just missed out on a qualifying mark for the finals, finishing 13th with a time of 6.96 seconds.
Moore finished fifth in the finals of the 60-meter run with a time of 6.90 seconds. Moore finished above runners from South Carolina and SAC rival Tusculum in the event. Moore has now finished inside the top-five in the 60-meter dash in seven straight races and inside the top-10 in 17 straight 60-meter dash events.
In the 200 meter run, Moore finished third out of 90 total runners with a time of 21.46 seconds. The time is his fastest of the season in the event and is a provisional mark. The time also currently ranks as the 18th fastest time in all of Division-II. Moore finished above runners from Division-I South Carolina, Charleston Southern, and The Citadel, and above SAC foes Tusculum, Anderson, Catawba, Newberry, Lenoir-Rhyne and Limestone at the event.
"Today wasn't the best day, but I think we got all our bad luck out in one day between Maka's false start, Matthew's fall and Sipho almost getting tripped in the 400," says Assistant Head Coach Kieran Showler-Davis. "But there were lots of learning points to take forward for the young guys. I'm happy with the improvement in Von's 200m which indicates he's moving in the right direction."
Makanakaishe Charamba also recorded a top-10 finish in the 200-meter run, finishing sixth with a time of 21.71 seconds. Charamba has competed in the event twice during his time at Carson-Newman, finishing inside the top-10 both times.
Siphosethu Boya raced in both the 200-meter and 400-meter races in Columbia. The Lee transfer finished 24th in the 200-meter run with a time of 22.40 seconds, while recording a top-15 finish in the 400-meter run, placing at 15th with a time of 49.54. Boya finished 15th out of 56 runners in the 400-meter run, beating out runners from Division-I Citadel and SAC foes Lenoir-Rhyne, Tusculum, Limestone, Newberry and Catawba.
Matthew Blackmon finished first in the qualifying round of the 60-meter hurdles, running aa time of 8.31 seconds. That mark was the fastest in the qualifying round by 0.23 seconds and the fastest in his heat by 0.29 seconds.
Blackmon just missed on qualifying for the finals in the preliminary round, finishing 11th with a time of 8.81 seconds. The freshman was the third highest finisher from a Division-II school in the event, as the top-four finishers all represented Southeastern Conference schools.
The Eagles will head to Winston-Salem, N.C. for the SAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 26-27. Fans can follow along with updates on the Carson-Newman track & field team at cneagles.com.
