Eagles host first and only home meet of the season
This past weekend, the Eagles hosted 30 schools and 900 athletes for the Winthrop/Adidas Invitational at Irwin Belk Track & Field.
The Eagles saw a first place finish from Jalen Hodges, third place finishes from Quemell Brave, Harper Henson, and Hunter Jarvis, and several PRs and top ten performances from numerous athletes.
“Great meet considering tough weather conditions. Cold and windy not very conducive to great performances,” said head coach Ben Paxton. “Proud of how well our kids competed.”
On Friday, the first full day of events, Winthrop saw success from women athletes Karina Grant, Kinley Wilkerson, and Taryn DeLeon.
Freshman Karina Grant competed in the heptathlon and finished in the top ten with 3,604 points.
“I got new personal bests in three of the seven events so that was exciting to see all my training paying off,” said Grant. “I am hoping to improve my weaker spots and maintain my strong ones in order to perform even better at the conference meet at the end of the season.”
Sophomore Kinley Wilkerson had a personal record of 46.41m in the hammer throw.
Taryn DeLeon is redshirtting this season so she competed unattached. She cleared 1.59m in the high jump, her first time competing all season.
On the men’s side, junior Hunter Schiers threw 13.89m in the shotput and finished in the top ten.
On Saturday afternoon the event concluded with even more strong performances from the Eagles.
Sophomore Jalen Hodges took first place in the high jump. He had a lifetime best jump of 2.0m.
“It felt great. My family came from Atlanta to watch me for the first time this year so I wanted to do well and win,” said Hodges. “My goals for the rest of the year are to continue to get better each day and win another conference championship.”
In the 800m, sophomore Hunter Jarvis finished third with a time of 1:56.78.
In the 1500m, sophomore Theo Kahler finished in fourth place with a time of 4:01.18 and senior Kevin Mills ran a 4:03.40 to finish in the top ten.
Senior Quemell Brave earned third in the triple jump and sophomore Evan Hailes placed fifth.
“I’ve been working on a lot of things on the track and in the weight room so I can be ready for conference,” said Hailes. “By the end of the season I want to have a new personal record and finish in a good standing in the conference.”
Sophomore Liv Paxton ran a 4:50.58 in the 1500m and in the 800m Harper Henson finished third with a time of 2:15.82.
“I look forward to dropping my 1500m time as well as going after school records in the 5000m and 10000m,” said Paxton.
