Aliyah Hill grabs first gold for ETSU as Bucs progress a multitude of athletes to the finals

LEXINGTON, Va. (Feb. 29, 2020) – The ETSU Track and Field Team has an early piece of hardware to bring home from the first day of the Southern Conference Indoor Championships, completing the opening day on Saturday at the VMI Corps Physical Training Facility.

Leading the way for the Bucs, Aliyah Hill produced the highlight of the day for her side, taking home the gold in the long jump with a leap of 5.91m. The women have continued that momentum, sitting comfortably in fourth with just a small gap standing in their way up the rankings with a host of strong finishes in the prelims to take into the finals on Sunday.

The men were led by a third place finish in the men’s 3000m by Matthew Scarr, awaiting results from the finals tomorrow to look to make a surge up the leaderboards. The Bucs sit in fifth place with 16 points, just one point back from The Citadel.

Field Highlights from Day One of the SoCon Indoor Championships:

• Aliyah Hill grabbed the first gold for the Bucs, leaping her way into the top spot of the long jump with a mark of 5.91m. Hill proved to be one of four Bucs to score, Mekayla Brown the next with a leap of 5.85m to finish fourth. Kendra Whitehurst’s 5.71m mark took sixth, while Khiara White grabbed a point with her eighth place leap of 5.62m.
• Symphony Buxton and Jataya Wilson opened the scoring for the Bucs, placing seventh-eighth in the shot put with marks of 13.05m and 12.90m.
• Finishing in seventh in the shot put, Kolin Miller provided a mid-day scoring mark with his toss of 13.86m.
• Marcus Evans finished his freshman season with a mark of 6.63m in the long jump, placing 13^th.
• Kennedi Johnson and Sarah Morelock finished the first day of the pentathlon, Johnson in sixth with 3,061 points and Morelock with a 2,355 point, ninth place performance.

Track Highlights from Day One of the SoCon Indoor Championships: 

• Four Bucs move to the finals of the men’s mile on Sunday. Ben Varghese finished with a time of 4:16.34 to place second in the prelims. Josh Routh, Myles Stoots and Noah Charles followed closely behind, finishing less than two seconds apart from each other to join Varghese in tomorrow’s events.
• Genevieve Schwarz joined her male counterparts in the final of the mile, placing eighth in the prelims with a 5:04.76 time.
• Kennedi Johnson (8.90s) cruised to a place in the finals of the 60m hurdles with a third place finish. Kendra Whitehurst narrowly missed out on a spot, finishing just .02s behind eighth place.
• The Bucs dominated the women’s 60m sprint, grabbing four finishes in the top five places. The Blue and Gold were led by Nicole Johnson who finished with a time of 7.49s. Kennedie Carithers and Mekayla Brown were separated by just .003s, finishing second and third respectively sharing the time of 7.53s. LaNaya Martin finished with an impressive time of 7.68s herself, taking fifth place to send four to the finals.
• Suffering a heartbreak in the women’s 400m, Johnaida Eliscar finished ninth in the event to miss out on a spot to the finals. Her 57.98 time was beat out by only .003, needing thousandths of a second to determine who entered the top eight.
• Miguel Parrilla and Heather Feuchtenberger both made it through the gauntlet of the men’s and women’s 800m, Parrilla’s time of 1:54.77 good for a fifth place finish in the prelims while Feuchtenberger finished third with a 2:13.24 mark.
• Kennedie Carithers and Nicole Johnson joined the rest of their squad on their way to the finals, finishing third and fourth in the 200m dash with times of 24.92s and 24.95s.
• In one of the few finals of the day, Matthew Scarr and Malick Gemechu scored for the Bucs, finishing third and seventh in the men’s 3000m. Scarr finished with a time of 8:16.59, Gemechu crossing the line at 8:27.62.
• Lindsey Stallworth also scored for ETSU in the 3000m, gaining a fifth place finish with a time of 10:03.86.
• The Bucs doubled up in bronze finishes in the 4000m distance medley relays, both the men and women finishing in third to add to the scoring in the final events of the day. The quadruple of Routh, Bryce Turnbow, Charles and Varghese finished in a time of 10:09.86, while the women were charged by Schwarz, Eliscar, Julia Karsten and Feuchtenberger and their 12:06.41 mark.

Men’s results – Day 1

1. Samford – 54.5 points
2. Western Carolina – 50.5
3. Furman – 35
4. The Citadel – 17
5. ETSU – 16
6. VMI – 13
7. UNCG – 5
8. Wofford – 4

Women’s results – Day 1

1. Samford – 71 points
2. Wofford – 42
3. Western Carolina – 37
4. ETSU – 35
5. Furman – 27
6. VMI – 16
7. Chattanooga – 4
8. UNCG – 2
9. The Citadel – 0

For a full list of results at the SoCon Indoor Championships, check out the link to the right side of the article.

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For more information on ETSU track and field, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the track and field pages. Also, follow the program on Twitter @ETSU_TF_XC and on Instagram at the handle @etsuxctf.