Eagles capture third at outdoor championships

Robert Huitt

With a late jump up the leaderboard, the Georgia Southern University track and field team finished third at the Southern Conference Outdoor Championships over the weekend.

The Western Carolina University Catamounts captured the crown as the SoCon’s best with Appalachian State University following in second.

The Eagles accumulated 112.5 points, narrowly putting them ahead of Elon University (111 points) and Samford University (110 points).

The relay teams have been more than impressive lately, and it carried into the championships.

The 4×400 meter relay team of senior Amber Vaughn, junior Dana Edwards, freshman Aliya Parker and sophomore Kimberly Thomas finished second and provided GSU with enough points to move into third in the overall standings.

“I knew that they had to come out and be in the top two in the 4×400,” head coach Marlo Mincey said in a news release. “I am not sure they knew that, but we are always racing to win.”

Sophomore Jasmin Walker, freshman Alyssa Felton, and seniors Ebony Carter and Vaughn teamed up to win the 4×100 meter relay event with a time of 45.46 seconds, which now ranks second in GSU history.

In the long jump, Walker captured first after a final jump of 5.82m (19’1”).

The heptathlon consists of seven individual events, and freshman Ashleigh Rasheed finished second after earning 4384 points.

Carter collected two third-place finishes in the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. Carter’s time of 11.75 in the 100m tied her personal best in the event, which is also second in school history.

Junior Aishya Wofford’s second place finish in the discus throw was the result of a final mark of 44.19m (145’).

In the high jump, freshman Keyanna Harris saved her best jump of her career for the championships and placed third at 1.67m (5’5”)

There were 10 Eagles that brought home hardware this weekend and that included 14 All-SoCon awards and 11 All-Freshman awards.

All-SoCon awards are given to those that finish in the top three of an event, and All-Freshman awards are given to the top three freshmen in each event.

The Eagles will not be in action again until the Georgia Tech Invitational on May 11.