The Furman University indoor track and field teams achieved several personal records at two competitions over the weekend. Athletes competed at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, held at Boston University’s Track and Tennis Center in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as the Asics Sound Invite at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
At the Boston meet, sophomore Claire Cook ran her first 1,000-meter race and finished tenth with a time of 2:48.83. Senior Camryn Wennersten won her heat and placed fifth overall in the mile open with a personal record of 4:41.57. Sophomore Jais Ward set a personal best in the invitational mile event, placing 38th with a time of 4:40.01. Freshman Annie Miller made her collegiate debut in the invitational mile and finished 46th at 4:43.05. In the women’s 3,000 meters, freshman Tessa Walter was 42nd with a personal best of 9:25.05; Zoie Lamanna also achieved a personal record with a time of 9:44.87.
On the men’s side in Boston, graduate student Bryn Woodall recorded a personal best of 7:52.63 to finish seventeenth in the 3,000 meters. Four Paladin men posted their fastest times ever in the 5,000 meters—junior Chris Knight led them by finishing forty-sixth with a time of 13:55.56; graduate student Albert Velikonja completed his race in 14:00.08; senior Luke Taylor set his own best mark at 14:00.29; senior Colton Kempney crossed at a career-best time of 14:09.48; junior Owen Shifflett finished with his top performance so far at 14:15.13.
At the Asics Sound Invite on Saturday, all seven Paladin women who raced placed among the top eight finishers in their events. Freshman Kate Bannigan won the mile run with her fastest-ever time of 5:04.95; senior Clair Garret took third place at 5:05.40; sophomore Katie Sobieraj came sixth and set her own record at 5:08.39; sophomore Joiner Evans was seventh at 5:11.25.
Sophomore Delaney Vickers was sixth in the seeded women’s 800 meters (2:10.58), while sophomore Anna Graves finished eighth (2:26.63) in that event’s open division for women; freshman Tara Watkins secured eighth place (1:02.73) in the women’s seeded 400 meters.
In men’s results from Winston-Salem, freshman Leland Bishop took eleventh place (50.55) in the seeded men’s 400 meters; sophomore Matteo Tonnos earned eleventh place (4:05.33) with his fastest mile yet and was followed closely by freshman Zach Youngblood’s twelfth-place finish (also setting his own record). Sophomore Rives Boltwood led Furman’s runners in the seeded men’s three thousand meter event by coming seventeenth overall (8:15.23), marking another career best.
Select members from Furman’s team will compete next Saturday at USC Invite held in Columbia, South Carolina as preparation for Southern Conference Championships scheduled for February 27–28 in Lexington, Virginia.
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