Day one
The men’s and women’s track and field teams opened up the Virginia Invitational meet with several athletes finishing in the top five of their respective events. Senior Eva Mustafic was one of the leaders for the Cavaliers on the first day of competition at Lannigan Field. Mustafic placed second in the women’s hammer throw with a mark of 58.84 meters (193’ 0”). In the same event, senior Brittany Jones finished fourth with her throw of 50.59 meters (165’ 11”).
The men’s hammer throw also featured a second-place finish by redshirt freshman Jacob Lemmon with a heave of 59.66 meters (195’ 9”). Graduate student Ty Kunzman also competed in this event and set a personal best of 57.70 meters (189’ 4”) to secure fourth place.
In the women’s 5000-meter run, sophomore Coco Holliday finished second with a personal record time of 18:05.17. She was followed by graduate student Swathi Samuel at third with a time of 18:42.31, and freshman Liza Neely at fourth with a time of 18:55.19.
The men’s 5000 meters saw sophomore Bryson Crites as the runner-up with a time of 14:35.01. Senior Harry Monroe was third, crossing the finish line at 14:40.03 while junior Peter Morris finished fourth with a time of 14:50.98.
Day two
One highlight of the second day of the Virginia Invitational was the performance of the women’s 4x100 meter dash squad. After setting the school record in the event just last week, the Cavalier women ran a second-place time of 44.36 to improve upon that record. The individuals that contributed to that record also went on to record some impressive performances in other events.
Three of those individuals would also sweep the top three spots of the women’s 100-meter dash. Senior Halle Hazzard won the event with a time of 11.44, sophomore Jada Seaman finished second at 11.56, and freshman Kayla Bonnick was third with a time of 11.76. Seaman’s time moved her to fifth on the school’s all-time performance list and broke Bonnick’s freshman record from earlier in the season.
Seaman concluded her day with a personal best and third-place finish of 6.13 meters (20’ 1.5”) in the women’s long jump.
In the shot put, freshman Maria Deaviz won for the third time this season with a put of 15.71 meters (51’ 6.5”). Senior Brittany Jones finished second in the event with a top throw of 14.90 (48’ 10.5”). For the men, redshirt freshman Claudio Romero matched Deaviz by also winning his third shot put event of the season, throwing for 18.02 meters (59’ 1.5”).
Romero finished second in the men’s discus with a toss of 62.56 meters (205’ 3”), which was an improvement on his own freshman record and also bumped him up to second on the school’s all-time list. Redshirt freshman Jacob Lemmon took third in the discus with a mark of 58.54 meters (192’ 1”). This was a personal best and ranks fifth all-time for the school.
On the women’s side, junior Thelma Kristjánsdóttir secured the win in the discus with a best mark of 52.99 meters (173’ 10”), a personal best and the fourth-ranked performance on Virginia’s all-time list. Junior Sadey Rodriguez finished second in the event with a toss of 47.75 meters (156’ 8”).
On the track, junior Helena Lindsay was able to win the 3000-meter steeplechase (10:25.50) and freshman Ellie Desmond took top honors in the 1500-meter run (4:28.28). For the men, graduate student Randy Neish won the 1500 meters with a time of 3:48.88, barely beating his sophomore teammate Will Baginski, who took second at 3:49.66.
In the pole vault, graduate student Joey Kelly cleared a personal best of 5.05 meters (16’ 6.75”) to put his name at fifth on the school’s all-time record list. Junior Kane Aldridge finished in second place after clearing his own personal best of 4.80 meters (15’ 9”).
Finally, in the long jump, junior Owayne Owens made a personal best effort of 7.48 meters (24’ 6.5”) to finish second in the event and fourth all-time for Virginia. Graduate student Brenton Foster also competed in the event, finishing third after clearing 7.38 meters (24’ 2.5”).
Up next, the Cavaliers will have a week off before hosting the Virginia Challenge at Lannigan Field April 16 and 17.
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