GREENSBORO, N.C. - In the final competitive weekend before the SAC Outdoor Championships, the Lenoir-Rhyne Men's and Women's Track and Field Teams generated success in the distance and field events at the Aggie Invitational. 

Despite the abundance of strong results over the weekend, Jacob Parkinson was the lone individual to collect a first-place finish. The junior from Lincoln, England, had a new personal-best time of 3:55.57 to win the tight field that included Lewis Budgen, who finished fourth for the Bears with his time of 4:00.03. 

In the women's 1500-meter race, Elizabeth Kessler and Claudia Teran Romagosa each finished in the Top 10 with a fourth and eighth place finish, respectively. Kessler, a junior from Syracuse, N.Y., produced a personal-best time of 4:46.07 while Romagosa had a personal best time as well with a 4:50.91 result. 

Another successful event that the Bears had in the men's and women's competitions was the 400-meter hurdles.  

In the men's race, Clarence McGill recorded a new personal-best time of 51.90 to finish third in event while Marcus Crumpler finished sixth with his 54.38 time. On the women's side, Mathilde Etienne had a personal best performance with her time of 1:06.68; that result was good enough for a ninth-place finish. 

Wrapping up at the track, Greg Grasso and Harrison Hickman each accumulated top finishes in the 5000-meter and 800-meter events, respectively.  

Grasso, who is a freshman, had his best finish in the outdoor season with a fourth-place time of 17:05.09. Hickman, a senior from Winston-Salem, N.C., had a personal-best time of 1:56.78 to finish seventh. 

Shifting over to the field, the best event over the weekend for LR was the men's hammer throw competition, who had three participants in the top six. The best finisher of the event for the Bears was Ellis Horton, who had a third-place finish with a 45.38-meter toss. 

The other two top finishers for the Bears were junior Monte Scott, who had a fourth-place throw of 44.12 meters, and freshman Austin Mozeley, who had personal-best toss of 39.94 meters, which was good enough for sixth. 

In the women's hammer throw competition, Savanna Nippa, the senior from Sanibel Island, Fla., finished seventh in the event with a personal-best toss of 40.33 meters. 

For Horton, the senior from Mount Pleasant, N.C., also had a sixth-place finish in the men's discus throw with a 42.58-meter toss. Also, Horton had his third Top 10 finish of the weekend in the men's shot put with a 13.00-meter throw.  

In addition to Horton's finish in the shot put, Josh Wise had the best LR finish in the event with a fourth-place throw of 14.44 meters.  

Wise, a senior from Portsmouth, England, had another top finish for the Bears with a 54.95-meter toss in the men's javelin throw. That toss was the third time in the outdoor season that Wise has finished in the top two.

In the men's high jump event, Maxwell Patterson recorded a new personal best with a leap of 1.85 meters, which was good enough for a 10th-place finish. 

Looking at some events that LR had success in both the men's and women's competitions include the pole vault.  

Pearl Ballard had a second-place clearance of 3.25 meters, which made it the third-straight weekend that the junior from Hendersonville, N.C. has finished in the top three. Additionally, Adair Dupree finished fourth in the same event with a 2.50-meter leap. 

On the men's side, Mike Karicher had his best result of the outdoor season with a 4.30-meter result. The performance was good enough for the junior to finish fourth.

The Bears also a Top 10 finish in both the men's and women's long jump events. For Tylei Woolard, the freshman from Greensboro, N.C., had a seventh-place result of 6.93 meters in the men's competition. On the women's side, Sofia Ulanday, the sophomore from Holly Springs, N.C., finished eighth with her personal-best leap of 5.39 meters. 

UP NEXT: The Lenoir-Rhyne Men's and Women's Track and Field Teams will now prepare for the 2024 SAC Outdoor Championships. This year's event will take place at the Irwin Track at the Moretz Sports Athletic Campus from Wednesday, May 1 through Thursday, May 2.