Traveling across town to the University of Lynchburg, the WildCat Track and Field teams shined in their last regular season competition before the ODAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the end of the month.

 

The day started off at the circles as the throwers had an early start to the day with the hammer throw.  Mitchell Doss would lead the WildCats in a competitive field with a best throw of 35.06m.  Sha-Ron Bass would throw a 3-meter improvement on his lifetime best in the event with a throw of 25.32m.  

 

The men then transitioned over to the shot put, where Doss and Bass would again be the top WildCat finishers with throws of 11.65m and 7.78m respectively.  However, the highlight for the throws would be in the men's discus, where on Doss' final throw he broke his own school record by nearly half a meter with a new mark of 37.22m.

 

The lifetime bests kept coming when the track events began.  Blan Hodges and Justin Bliss both made strong moves in the 1500m to come away with lifetime bests of 4:38.28 and 4:54.13 respectively before doubling back in the 800m to also run lifetime bests of 2:11.77 and 2:23.93. 

 

Coach DJ Petty would return to competition for the first time in 2 years and place second overall in the 110m Hurdles with a time of 15.11 before doubling back and posting an exceptional time of 10.99 in the 100m Dash.  

 

Lamont Mohabir also contested the 100m, running a new lifetime best of 11.55 before teammate DeAndre Jackson recorded his own lifetime best, this time in the 400m, with a 53.03.  Mohabir would return in the 200m to run 23.73.

 

Cody Thompson would also continue the lifetime best-trend when he ran another lifetime best of 2:00.37, breaking his own first-year school record, leading teammate Tristian Palmer to a 2:08.10, also a lifetime best.

 

Not to be outdone, first-year Cole Torres would his best 400m Hurdles race of the year to a 2-second lifetime best of 1:02.10.

 

An intermission would pass before the distance carnival began under the stadium lights at Shellenberger Field.  First-year Izaiah Burgos would kick things off with 5:04 first mile in the men's 5000m.  He would settle into his pace over the second mile with a running time of 10:14 before closing his last mile in a 5:01 and kicking to a new lifetime best of 15:51.95.  This improves Burgos' best time by nearly 40 seconds and sets a new school record, breaking Alex Dye's time of 16:06.11 from a few weeks ago, making him the first WildCat under the 16-minute barrier.

 

Not to be undone, the men's 10,000m crew, consisting of senior Alex Dye and two first-years Tanner Cochran and Aaron Scott would run a grueling 25 laps to all break the previous school record in the event of 36:51.33.  Dye would cruise to the fastest time of the night and claim the new record with a time of 34:10.03, winning the event outright before Tanner Cochran and Aaron Scott, after working together throughout the race, kicked to new lifetime bests of 36:33.17 and 36:36.33 respectively to close out the night.

 

"Everyone had a lifetime best today, which is a testament to all the hard work everyone has put in this semester," Coach Purrington said, "It was an incredible day to be a WildCat and the three new school records show that we are bringing our best at the end of the season, when it counts.  We're really excited to see what everyone does at ODACs.