Newport News, VA – After a successful season last year, the Regent University Men's and Women's Track & Field team opened up their Indoor Season on Sunday at the Christopher Newport University Holiday Open. With some familiar faces, mixed with new teammates, the Royals were prepared to start off on the right foot as they began their march to the ultimate goal of Nationals.
The day started off strong as Junior Kevin Cropper (Oak Hall, VA) set an indoor school record in the High Jump with a height of 1.91M. His 2nd place performance also earned him a trip to Nationals as he has now already met the qualifying score. In addition, Cropper turned in a jump of 6.24m in the Long Jump, which was good enough for 11th place.
Senior Anna Wade (Stafford, VA), who was making her track & field debut for Regent, turned in a Top 5 performance in the 3000M, finishing in 3rd place with a time of 13:21.44. This time was also good enough for a personal record for Wade. In addition, there were two Top 10 finishes, with Freshman Thomas Slingluff (Suffolk, VA) finishing the 3000M in 7th place (9:49.08) and Freshman Jacob Winck (Breezewood, PA) turning in a 7th place finish in the 400M (52.62). Both performances were good enough for personal records. Winck also finished the 200M with a personal best time of 24.74.
Fresh off a successful cross country season, Sophomore Shylah Wells (Youngsville, NC) competed in three events on Sunday, setting personal records in all three, finishing the 400M in 16th place with a time of 1:13.82, the Long Jump with a distance of 3.78M and the Shot Put with a throw of 4.79M.
Two more Royals made their debuts today as Freshman Ryan Neves (Huntington Beach, CA) set personal records in the 60M (7.48) and 400M (57.87), while Junior Donovan Allen (Manassas, VA) set personal records in the 400M (58.67) and the Triple Jump (11.93M). Rounding out the track events for Regent were fellow Juniors Evan Pond (Powhatan, VA) and Lucas Hubbard (Newtown, PA) who finished the 800M with times of 2:20.67 and 2:30.41.
The largest event of the day was the Men's Shot Put, which saw five Royals compete in the first flight. Freshman Aidan Kingsborough (Clarkston, WA) led the way with a personal best throw of 10.45M, followed by Junior Ernst Park III (Bentonville, AR) with a throw of 10.43M, while Hubbard and Pond finished with throws of 8.56M and 7.72M. Rounding out the group was Freshman Jaxon Sawyer (Virginia Beach, VA) who set his own personal record with a throw of 5.78M.
Regent will be back in action after the holidays when they stay close to home to compete in the VCU Rams Invitational at the Virginia Beach Sports Center on January 12th. Start time is 9:00am.
