University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldog Track Turns in Successful Day at Appalachian State
05.02.2015 | Track and Field
BOONE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville track and field teams completed a successful Saturday when they set several personal bests and had 11 top-10 finishes at the Appalachian State Open.
Overall, the Bulldogs set two new personal bests and moved into the top-five all-time in program history in three other events with their Saturday performances. In total, Asheville athletes competed in 14 events at Appalachian State.
Earlier in the morning, the teams were part of the dedication ceremonies on campus for the new facilities at the Karl Straus Track, which included a timing center, a concession stand and restrooms at the complex.
In the field events, the Bulldogs saw a pair of second place finishes, one by Sam Barbeau in the men's javelin throw with his distance of 44.13 meters and another by Argia Gibson in the women's triple jump with her distance of 11.38 meters. Gibson's distance becomes the new second-best distance in program history.
The women's 400 meter dash saw Kassandra Pierre (58.94) and Zoe Hickey (59.04) finish third and fourth, respectively, in the race, while the duo's times also become the third- and fourth-best all time in the 400 meter dash in program history.
All six Bulldogs in the women's 800 meter run finished in the top-11, led by Alyssa Lashway's third place finish with her new personal best time of 2:14.47, while the five other Asheville runners – Kelsie Rubino (2:19.82), Casey Greenwalt (2:20.43), Maddie Lowe (2:21.13), Sarah Heisner (2:21.57) and Scarlett Beamon (2:21.17) – all finished stride-for-stride in seventh through 11th place.
The men's 1500 meter run featured five Asheville runners, led by Andy Thornburg's (3:59.88) 10th place finish, while the women's 1500 meter run saw three Bulldogs – Heisner (6th, 4:50.84), Erin Dalton (8th, 4:58.62) and Beamon (10th, 5:00.22) – finish inside the top 10.
A pair of Bulldogs finished one-two in the women's 5000 meter run, led by Kasey Briggs and her time of 18:27.87, followed by Adrian Etheridge and her time of 18:59.50.
Two more men's events saw Bulldogs finish in the top 10, as Keenan Devaney's distance of 6.16 meters gave him sixth in the long jump and Joe McNamera ran an 11.29 second time in the 100 meter dash to finish seventh.
Asheville will take next weekend off in preparation for the Big South Conference Championships May 14-16 hosted by High Point University.
