This weekend the women’s and men’s track and field teams competed at the University of Akron Invitational. Both teams did well at the competition with multiple first place and top 10 finishes.

The Flashes had seven first place finishes throughout the meet in pole vault, 800m dash, weight throw, shot put, triple jump and high jump.

Junior Alyssa Matheny won the high jump with a final jump of 1.73m. Matheny said her main focus was to clear the first bar and then she knew that would help her gain the confidence to reach those higher heights. 

Coming in first place was a major change from the last meet she competed in. 

“After no-heighting in my last meet and the disappointment that I felt with it, I knew that I needed to do better this meet,” Matheny said.

Freshman Lillie Franks followed Matheny in second place with a final jump of 1.69m. On the men’s team, junior Anthony Milliner finished first in triple jump with a distance of 14.50m.

The Flashes took first in the men’s and women’s pole vault. Senior Christian Champen had a score of 5.22m and junior Ally Thompson finished with a distance of 3.87m.

In the men’s high jump, there were two Flashes that finished in the top five. Redshirt senior Brad Jones finished in second place with a distance of 6-08.00 while freshman Jack McElligott finished in fifth place with a jump of 6-06.00. 

In women’s shot put, junior Grace Tennant finished in first with a score of 15.15m. Sophomore Gabby Bailey scored a distance of 15.02m, which put her in second place.

Redshirt freshman Nate Cousino also finished in first place of the 800m run with a time of 1:53.39.

Kristyn Hibbett is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].