WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Track and Field Team brought home a second place finish at the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Indoor Championships on Sunday at the JDL Fast Track.

On top of the second place finish, LR brought home a handful of individual awards. For the second consecutive season, Kevin Paterson was named the Men's Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. For the student-athletes, Philip Stomne shared the honor of the Men's Outstanding Field Athlete of the Meet while Bamidele Ajayi earned the title of the Men's Indoor Track and Field Freshman of the Year.

The Bears finished with 132 total points, trailing only Wingate, who had 177. The Bears had a huge lead on the third place finisher, Tusculum, who ended with 55 points.

FAST FACTS FROM THE SAC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:

• The Bears' best event came in the heptathlon, where they recorded 25 of their 132 total points. Stomne took the top spot in the competition, earning 10 points with his 4889 final. Oliver Thatcher, who ended second with 4486 points, earned eight points for the Bears.
• LR tallied 23 of its points from the 400-meter event, led by first-place finisher Ajayi. The freshman finished with a time of 48.67, which was only two hundredths of a second faster than teammate Marcus Crumpler, who ended second. Olawole Olanrewaju finished fourth with 50.22 time.
• Ajayi's contributions were not done there as he placed third in the 200-meter dash with his time of 22.13. While Ajayi secured six points for the Bears, Nurain Musa (22.24) and Crumpler (22.24) got five and four points with their fourth and fifth place finishes, respectively.
• In the men's long jump, Ezequiel Bustamante finished first with a leap of 7.28 meters, giving the Bears the full 10 points. Fellow freshman Tylei Woolard tallied a fifth-place finish with his jump of 6.95 meters.
• In the 60-meter dash, Musa took first place and scored 10 points for the Bears with his time of 6.77. That posting is only four hundredths of a second behind his personal-best recording.
• Ellis Horton posted another first-place finish for the Bears with his 16.73-meter toss in the weight throw event. That mark is a new personal best for the senior who last reached that distance or greater in the 2022 SAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
• In addition to his win in the heptathlon, Stomne also smashed his personal best in the pole vault event with a clearance of 4.46 meters. With another first-place finish, the senior collected an additional 10 points for the Bears.
• For the 60-meter hurdles, Liam Sutton was the best LR finisher with a fourth-place time of 8.23. While Sutton claimed eight points, Clarence McGill (8.46) and Nick Tibolla (8.54) finished seventh and eighth place to earn two and one points, respectively.
• In the Distance Medley Relay, the combined group of Lewis Budgen, John Sisson, Harrison Hickman, and Jacob Parkinson gave LR six more points with their third-place finish. The four-man team recorded a time of 10:20.69.
• Securing another podium finish for the Bears was Josh Wise, who finished third in the shot put event. The senior went on to record a new personal best toss of 14.83 meters and matched his best finish in the event during the indoor season.
• The final event that the Bears scored points in was the triple jump. Nick Henriques, the junior from Acworth, Ga., recorded a new personal best with a leap of 14.68 meters to earn three points and finish sixth.

The Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Track and Field Team will now turn its attention to the 2024 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships. The two-day event, which is hosted by Pittsburg State University, is scheduled to take place on March 8-9 in Pittsburg, Kan.