Alex Allen, Copy Editor~
Men’s and women’s Indoor track & field began their 2017-18 season on Dec. 1 at Roanoke College in their annual Bast-Cregger Invitational. The invitational lasted until Dec. 2.
The men started off strong on the track with a powerful performance from first-year Azavier Kirtley who finished in the top of each of his events. His first event was the 200-meter dash in which he won, coming in with a time of 23.06 seconds, two-tenths of a second quicker than his closest opponent. His next event was the 400-meter dash. Kirtley finished second in this event with a time of 50.32 seconds. Alongside Kirtley was sophomore teammate Shawn Gmurek who earned LC a top spot by finishing first in the 600-meter run with a time of 1:28.77.
In field events, the men saw good things from two of their throwers, senior Evan Griffey and junior Dalton Hoppe. Both Griffey and Hoppe finished in fifth in their events. Griffey earned fifth in shot put with a distance of 46-3 ¾ and Hoppe placed fifth in the weight throw with a distance of 43-11 ½.
The women started their season off on the track with junior Endasia Mitchell earning fourth place in the 400-meter in her section at a time of 1:03.93. Mitchell also earned second place overall in the 600-meter run, with a time of 1:47.13.
On the other side, during the field events sophomore Sammi Woods and junior Rachel Murray started LC throwing off. Woods threw a distance of 36-11 ¼ in shot put, placing her in fourth. In the weighted throw category, Murray finished in fifth place with a throw that was 39-4 ¾ in distance.
Even though this was LC’s first meet of the 2017-18 season, they are already looking for ways to improve. The next meet for LC will be at Christopher Newport University (CNU) on Saturday, Dec. 9 for their Holiday Open.