Blacksburg, Va. – The Western Carolina track and field teams are headed home after a strong finish to this weekend's Virginia Tech Invite. The Catamounts saw seven personal bests set by six student-athletes across as many events on the final day the two-day meet at the Rector Field House.
WCU's top finish of the day went to Ian Hicks, who made his Catamount debut in both the 200-meter and 400-meter dash. The sophomore transfer from Belmont Abbey set personal bests in both events with his best performance came in the men's 200m dash, where he took fourth with a time of 22.19. He was followed by freshman Ethan Long, who made his event debut in memorable fashion by taking fifth with a 22.20 finish. Catamount cornerstone Quinton Godfrey rounded out an impressive showing in the event with a 22.32 finish, earning seventh.
The best women's performances of the day were in the triple jump where freshmen Raeyln Vadala and Octavia Massena took top ten finishes. Vadala out of Buffalo, N.Y., set a personal best in the event with a leap of 11.74 meters, good for eighth place. Lake Worth, Fla., product Massena finished just behind her in ninth with a mark of 11.47m.
The Catamount throws squads earned a pair of top ten finishes, both coming in the shot put. Junior Jacob Thomas took eighth in the men's shot-put competition with a personal best throw of 14.26 meters and was one of only nine throwers to break the 14-meter mark. Freshman Ericka Jackson took a 10th-place finish in the women's event with her own personal best throw of 13.33m, her first career mark over 13 meters.
"Excited for this start. Our long sprints, hurdles, and women's triple jumpers had some of the best marks for this weekend. We got multiple PRs and are ahead of where we were last year at this time," said WCU track and field head coach Jesse Norman. "We even got a couple of performances on the all-time list. Henry (Stecher) and Amaya (Hicks) in the 1,000-meter, number two all-time. We just need to bring this momentum into Clemson next week."
The Catamounts are back in action next weekend as they return to South Carolina for the Clemson-hosted Orange and Purple Classic on January 24-25. As the indoor season continues, WCU returns to Virginia for the VMI Winter Classic on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 at the Corps Physical Training Facility in Lexington, Va.
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