Virginia Beach, VA – The Regent University Track & Field team stayed close to home on Sunday as they competed in the VCU Invitational at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. It was the second Meet of the indoor season and the first of 2025. Before the Christmas break, a number of Royals broke personal and school records, and they were looking to repeat those performances.
Coach Rose and his team have not shied away from top competition and today was no different. A majority of the participating teams were from the NCAA Division I level and allowed Regent to compete against some of the best in the country. Sophomore Shylah Wells (Youngsville, NC) kicked off the day with personal records in the 60M hurdles (13.32) and the long jump (3.84), while Senior Anna Wade (Stafford, VA) set her own personal record in the mile (6:37.15). Wade also competed in the 3000M where she finished with a time of 13:22.02, which was good enough for 16th place. Freshman Thomas Slingluff (Suffolk, VA) also ran in the mile and 3000M and set a personal record (mile) with times of 4:49.13 and 9:51.06.
Senior Rebecca Garcia (Florida), who was competing for the first time this season, finished the 60M at 8.60 and the 200M at 29.51. In addition, she competed in the high jump, where she cleared a height of 1.40M. Rounding out the track events were Freshman Ryan Neves (Huntington Beach, CA) and Junior Donovan Allen (Manassas, VA) who both competed in the 60M (Neves, a personal best 7.38, Allen 7.74, a personal best) and 200M (Neves 24.24, Allen 24.43, a personal best) and fellow Juniors Lucas Hubbard (Newtown, PA) and Evan Pond (Powhatan, VA) who competed in the 800M (Hubbard 2:25.37, Pond 2:31.64).
A number of Royals competed in the Shot Put, as Freshman Aidan Kingsborough (Washington State) led the way with a throw of 10.46M, which was followed by Junior Ernest Park III (Bentonville, AR) with a throw of 10.00M. Hubbard finished with a throw of 8.31M, while Freshman Jaxon Sawyer (Virginia Beach, VA) threw a personal record 6.62M. Pond would come in with a throw of 6.23M and on the women's side, Wells recorded a throw of 4.74M.
To end the day, Junior Kevin Cropper (Oak Hall, VA) and Allen finished 15th and 17th in the Triple Jump with jumps of 12.19M and 11.61M
Regent will be back in action on Friday, January 17th when they travel to Newport News to compete in the Captains Invitational at Christopher Newport University.
