Elon Men’s Tennis Claims Meet Title at Liberty Open

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Elon University women’s track and field team had an outstanding performance on the final day at the Liberty Open on Saturday, Jan. 18. The Phoenix claimed the meet title with 303 points over host Liberty, who finished with 231 inside the Tolsma Indoor Track facility.

Elon also had a number of individual champions while seeing a most of its athletes rewrite the school record books.

Freshman Kimberly Johansen, in her first collegiate indoor meet, established a new school-record by nearly 11 seconds in the 1,000-meter race with her time of 2:54.55 winning the event.

Another freshman, Carrie Abraham, also had a great day overall as the Winchester, Mass., native won the women’s high jump with a cleared height of 5’5” (1.65m), edging out teammate Megan Kirschling, who finished second with the same height, but needed more attempts to advance.

In the women’s triple jump, Abraham finished as the runner-up with a distance of 36’8.25” (11.18m), the fourth-best mark in school history. Marie Borowycz had a leap of 34’7.75” (10.56m) for fourth place followed by Jayna Coyle with a her mark of 34’7” (10.54m).

Abraham added the long jump title to her accomplishments on the day after making a leap of 17’8” (5.38m).

Elon saw two more athletes claim titles in the 60-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles. Bria Turner clocked a time of 7.98 in the 60-meter dash to take individualist honors followed by teammate Simone Jackson, who ran a time of 8.05.

Griffin ran a time of 8.92 in the 60-meter hurdles and was one of five members of the team to qualify for the finals. Jennifer Esposito was the next Phoenix to cross the line in third with a time of 9.10.

Griffin won the 200-meter dash as the Phoenix took the top six positions and dominated the event. Griffin clocked a time of 25.51 with Esposito (25.97), Pash (26.58), Turner (26.82), Jackson (26.83) and Kayleigh Birks (27.07) following, respectively.

Esposito won the 400-meters title after setting a new personal-record with a time of 58.06, besting her previous mark she set last week at the Wake Forest Invitational. Bria Bell was third with a time of 58.77 while Jennifer Pash rounded out the top-four after clocking in with 59.24.

The women’s 3,000 meter race saw the Phoenix take home another title as Elyse Bierut crossed the line with a time of 10:14.05. Freshman Shelby Cuddeback was second with a time of 10:34.86 as the maroon and gold took the top six spots of the event.

Jackie Madden won the 800-meters with an overall time of 2:24.52, edging out Liberty’s Hannah Scherlacher. Kaitlin Snapp was the runner-up in the 500-meter run with a time of 1:24.85. Tereza Novotna (1:24.96, 3rd) and Abigail Steinsiek (1:26.10, 4th) also competed for Elon in the race.

The Elon 4×400-meter relay “A” team finished as the runner-up behind Liberty with a time of 4:10.54. The second place standing in the race helped the Phoenix earn its first meet championship since winning the Wake Forest Invitational last season.

Elon returns to competition on Jan. 31, as the Phoenix travels to State College, Pa., for the Penn State Invitational.

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