• Seniors Alyssa Palenchar and Jill Marois notched strong marks of 3.82m (12-6.25) in the pole vault
• Junior Cozette Collin placed sixth in the 800m run (2:18.81)
• Freshmen Courtney Kerr (mile, 5:29.85) and Janelle Rothacker (800m, 2:23.60) put together indoor personal best times in their respective events
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The High Point University women’s track & field team generated a number of personal best times and marks during this weekend’s Virginia Tech Challenge in Blacksburg.
The meet serves as a conference warm up of sorts for the Panthers, as HPU will compete at VT’s Rector Field House during next weekend’s Big South Indoor Championships.
“We had some nice sharpening heading into conference next weekend,” head coach Mike Esposito said. “Things are coming together well and we look forward to seeing our hard work pay off.”
HPU’s pole vault duo put together a pair of excellent performances in one of the strongest pole vault fields in the nation so far this season. Senior Alyssa Palenchar posted a PR of 3.82m (12-6.25) to finish 13th while senior Jill Marois matched her at 3.82m but cleared the bar on her second attempt to place 14th.
In mid-distance action, junior Cozette Collin led the Panthers with a sixth-place finish (2:18.81) while freshman Janelle Rothacker was 15th with an indoor personal best time of 2:23.60.
Freshman Emmy Geis finished 12th in the 600m in a time of 1:38.98.
On the distance circuit, freshman Courtney Kerr finished 16th in the mile run with a new personal best indoor time of 5:29.85.
In the high jump, junior Amanda Gregory placed 15th with a mark of 5.27m (17-3.5) and fellow junior Alyn Carr finished 22nd in 4.92m (16-2.25). Freshman Arianna Coleman was 25th in 4.71m (15-5.5).
Carr placed 21st in the preliminaries of the 60m dash with a collegiate PR of 8.01 seconds and Coleman placed 22nd in a personal best 8.02 seconds.
On the throws circuit, redshirt-sophomore Makenzi Holmes-DiGiovine finished 18th with a mark of 14.04m (46-0.75).
The Panthers return to action next weekend (Feb. 26-27) at the Big South Indoor Track & Field Championships in Blacksburg.