HICKORY, N.C. - In the final home meet of the outdoor season, the Lenoir-Rhyne Men's and Women's Track and Field Teams collected three first-place finishes at the LR Last Chance Meet.
For the men's 400-meter race, the Bears took the top two spots with personal best times by Clarence McGill and Marcus Crumpler. McGill, the sophomore from Corpus Christi, Texas, recorded the first-place time of 47.44, while Crumpler, the junior from Huntersville, N.C., constructed a second-place finish of 47.93.
In the women's 100-meter hurdles, Melody Jones recorded a first-place time of 13.85. The Chicago native is coming off her first-place finish in the event during the SAC Outdoor Championships. Miranda Marr, the junior from Powder Springs, Ga., finished eighth in the race with a time of 15.27.
Jones also finished in the Top 10 in the women's long jump competition with her leap of 5.34 meters. The junior had a fourth-place result in the SAC Outdoor Championships.
For the men's javelin throw, Josh Wise, the senior from Portsmouth, England, notched a first-place throw of 55.02 meters. In the SAC Outdoor Championships, Wise secured a second-place result in the event.
In addition to some top finishes on the leaderboard, the Bears also had several placements on the podium. That includes Marlesia Walker, who finished second in the women's discus throw and hammer throw events.
Walker, the junior from Kankakee, Ill., set a new seasonal best in the discus throw competition with a toss of 34.70 meters. For the hammer throw event, Walker recorded a toss of 37.14 meters; she finished seventh in the event during the SAC Outdoor Championships.
While Walker had a successful weekend with her two second-place finishes, she earned a third-place result in women's shot put with a lunch of 11.23 meters. In the SAC Outdoor Championships, Walker notched a new personal best of 12.04 meters.
Also registering a second-place result was Sincere Sanders-Moss, who recorded a time of 10.36 in the men's 100-meter dash. In addition to his podium finish in the 100-meter race, the freshman from Gastonia, N.C., constructed a third-place time of 21.32 in the 200-meter dash.
Ellis Horton, the senior from Mount Pleasant, N.C., finished second in the men's discus throw event with a toss of 39.72 meters. Meanwhile, in the men's hammer throw event, Horton finished third with his toss of 46.07 meters. He finished in the top three for both events in the SAC Outdoor Championships.
In the women's 4x400-meter relay, the combined team of Sharonda Priester, Damyja Ortiz, Holly Kone, and Victoria Aransiola registered a second-place time of 3:46.99. The group dropped their time by nearly seven seconds from their fourth-place finish in the SAC Outdoor Championships.
Alongside her efforts in the relay, Priester collected a second-place time of 1:05.99 in the women's 400-meter hurdles. The freshman had a personal best result in SAC Outdoor Championships, which was good enough to win the competition.
Sticking with the track, Zanetta Udo-Obong had two impressive displays in the women's 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. The freshman from Lagos, Nigeria, had a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter event with a time of 12.08, which was one of her fastest times in the outdoor season. For the 200-meter race, Udo-Obong comprised a sixth-place finish with her time of 25.85
Lastly, in the men's 110-meter hurdles, the Bears had two finishers in the Top 10 with Nick Tibolla and Liam Sutton. Tibolla, the freshman, put together a seventh-place time of 14.93 while Sutton, the freshman from Lincolnton, N.C., collected a new personal best with an eighth-place finish of 14.96.
The Lenoir-Rhyne Men's and Women's Track and Field Teams will now await to see which individuals will qualify for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships. The three-day event will begin on Thursday, May 23, in Emporia, Kan.
