Steeplechase Sweep for Asheville Highlights Day Two of Big South Outdoor Championships

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The UNC Asheville track and field team completed day two of the Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Tuesday (May 12), highlighted by a sweep of the men's and women's 3,000m steeplechase titles.

POINTS ON THE BOARD

It was a steeplechase victory sweep for Asheville, as Aneta Kucerová and Jan Málek each earned conference titles in their respective events. Kucerová led the women's race from the gun, clocking a winning time of 10:44.41. Kucerová's championship marks her second consecutive Big South title in the 3,000m steeplechase after winning the event at last year's conference championship. She also improved her championship-winning time by 16.01 seconds from a season ago.

On the men's side, Málek surged late to cross the line first in 9:07.21. The victory marks Málek's second straight Big South steeplechase title and his third consecutive podium finish in the event after placing runner-up in 2024.

Joining Málek in the men's steeplechase, Jonas Roach ran a season-best time of 9:30.75 to place fifth overall.

In the circle, Jaelyn Arnold placed sixth in the women's shot put with a season-best throw of 13.62m.

On the men's side, Greg Schell placed eighth in the shot put with a personal-best throw of 14.93m. Joining Schell in the shot put was Will Wilkerson and Preston Reed with the duo recording personal bests while placing ninth (14.86m) and 12th (14.12m), respectively.

After the second and final day of the men's decathlon, Stephen Pryor led Asheville with a sixth-place finish and 5,672 total points. Pryor moved to No. 2 in program history, finishing just 17 points shy of the school record mark of 5,689 points. Noah Henthorn finished seventh overall with a personal-best 5,445 points, improving his spot from No. 5 to No. 4 on the program all-time list. Blake Hawks rounded out the Asheville scorers with an eighth-place finish and 4,804 points.

Hawks also added a point-scoring finish in the men's triple jump, placing eighth overall with a mark of 13.64m.

FINALS QUALIFIERS

Alexis Vaughan qualified for the women's 400m final after running a personal-best 56.86 in the prelims.

Nkosi Jeju qualified for the men's 100m final after winning his heat in 10.62.

Alison Graf advanced to the women's 800m final after clocking 2:13.77 in the prelims.

In the men's 800m prelims, Bennett Moreno qualified for the final with a time of 1:53.31.

A LOOK AT TOMORROW

Asheville will wrap up competition on Wednesday (May 13), with the first field event beginning at 12 p.m. with the men's discus and the first track event beginning at 2:30 p.m. with the women's 4x100m relay.

For a complete look at Tuesday's results, click here.

University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics