Trojan Indoor Track And Field Teams Wrap Up Competition At Hilton Garden INNvitational

Trojan Indoor Track And Field Teams Wrap Up Competition At Hilton Garden INNvitational

Jacob Urys, the men's 4x400 relay team and Alexis McNeil set school records, while Akiharu Kitagawa became the eighth Trojan already this season to earn an NCAA Division II provisional qualifier as the University of Mount Olive men's and women's indoor track and field teams wrapped up competition in the Hilton Garden INNvitational at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C. The two-day meet began Friday and concluded Saturday.

Kitagawa posted a time of 8:21.60 in the 3000 meters to eclipse the minimum time needed to be eligible to qualify for the NCAA II Championship. His time is the second fastest in school history. He finished first out of 24 non-Division I runners and tied for fifth out of 63 runners overall.

Kitagawa joins teammates Franz Beyer (heptathlon), Angus Sinclair (heptathlon) and Austin Steagall (mile) as NCAA II provisional qualifiers.

Urys set a school record in the 800 meters with a time of 1:57.61. He beat his own school record by almost a full second.

The quartet of Petter Gustafsson, Joaquim Cotano-Lezcano, Davide Cuccurullo and Karl Goodman beat the previous school record in the 4x400 meter relay by more than three seconds with a time of 3:26.16. Cotano-Lezcano and Goodman were part of the group that previously held the school record.

For the second straight meet, McNeil broke the school record in the 60-meter dash. She posted a time of 7.78 to beat her previous record by .05 seconds. McNeil also ran the third fastest time in the 400 meters.

Three more Trojans narrowly missed setting school indoor track and field records. Bailee Henry recorded the second fastest time in the mile run, Kanesha Jones recorded the second longest distance in the long jump and Nichole Poppe notched the second longest distance in the weight throw.

Mount Olive returns to action next Sunday as the Trojans travel to Newport News, Va., to compete in the Vince Brown Invitational.