University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Track and Field at ETSU on Friday & Saturday
01.15.2015 | Track and Field
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men's and women's track and field squads head to Johnson City, Tenn. on Friday for the ETSU Track & Field Invitational Friday and Saturday inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletics Center on David E. Walker Track at Gentry Field.
Previously known as the Niswonger Invitational, the meet will welcome teams from 30-plus regional schools for competition during the two days. Action will begin on Friday morning with the women's 60 meter hurdle prelims and weight throw finals at 10 a.m. Throws, jumps, and sprints events will continue throughout the afternoon with the men's and women's 5000 meter runs wrapping things up for the day around 7:30 p.m.
Competition will pick back up on Saturday with a day chock-full of both track events and field events. Action will commence with the men's and women's 5000 meter runs around 8 a.m. and will continue throughout the morning with various distance events. Field events will begin at noon with the men's long jump and pole vault finals, and will end at 4 p.m. with the women's long jump finals. Running competition will start back up at 1:25 p.m. and will progress through the afternoon and early evening. Action at the meet will close with the running of the men's and women's 4x400 meter relay around 7 p.m.
“We're looking forward to this weekend's meet at ETSU. This will be the first time we've had most of the team perform in a meet,” stated Bulldog coach Jesse Norman. “We look forward to seeing everybody compete and see where we're at this point of the season.”
The Bulldogs have had two meets in the early part of the season but only brought a portion of their squads to each meet. Asheville was in action last weekend in Winston-Salem at the Wake Forest Invitational. It was a good meet for the Blue & White.
The Bulldog women's DMR team led by Casey Greenwalt, Zoe Hickey, Alyssa Lashway and Kelsie Rubino won the event with an electrifying time of 12:27.79.
The men's DMR team took first place on Saturday. The posted a time of 10:37.89. The quartet included Caleb Smith, Sergeneno Rankin, Chase Stevens and Andy Thornburg.
Other highlights on the day from the women's side consisted of solid performances from Argia Gibson both in track and field. She took fifth in the triple with a leap of 10.90 meters. Gibson then had the third fastest time in school history in the 60 meters with a time of 7.98.
In the 800 meters, Asheville had three runners place in the top 12. Maddie Lowe came in sixth at 2:27.64. Katie Gamble finished 11th at 2:34, while Marissa Banks was right behind her at 2:36. Sarah Heisner came in fifth in the mile run as she posted a time of 5:26.84.
The men's team had some highlights in distance events. Kevin Paradise finished sixth in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:36. Brent Schouler was right behind Paradise in seventh place at a time of 9:43.
Asheville had three runners in the top eight in the mile. Nathan Kirse posted a fourth-place finish at 4:38.78. Ryan Catrine was right behind him in fifth place at 4:39. Jacob Fink took eighth at a time of 4:54.
