@CanesTrack Wins Four Medals on Day 2 of ACCs
BOSTON – The University of Miami track and field program earned four medals on Day 2 of the ACC Indoor Championships.
The Hurricanes had a strong day at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, earning four medals, having several student-athletes advance to Saturday’s finals and seeing one Cane be crowned a champion.
“I feel like we maximized our points in the field today,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “I think the team is in good spirits and feeling confident. We just have to have a good night, get rest and go back out and do it again tomorrow.”
Dakota Dailey-Harris set a new school record and earned a gold medal in the women’s high jump. The senior cleared 1.83m to finish first in the event, while freshman Kyra Maryland placed eighth with a personal-best mark of 1.71m that ranks fourth in UM history. The duo combined to score 11 points for Miami’s women.
“It felt like my old self again,” Dailey-Harris said. “Coming into college, I was almost flawless on every jump my senior year when I competed here in high school and I won. It was nice to come back here and win again. I feel great to have been able to win my first gold medal and contribute 10 points to our team.”
Alysha Newman earned a silver medal in the women’s pole vault, clearing 4.42m and scoring eight points for Miami’s women’s team.
“I thought our field events had a heck of a day,” Deem said. “We had a lot of great performances by both men and women, capped off by Dakota. We knew the pole vault competition was going to be tough and it was a great competition to watch. And then to have a freshman in Kyra Maryland score a point was awesome to see.”
John-Patrick Friday earned a bronze medal in the men’s high jump, clearing 2.10m and scoring six points for the men’s team. David Njoku just missed scoring for the Canes, placing ninth in the high jump with a mark of 2.04m.
The Canes also had a strong day in the men’s long jump with Innocent Jacob earning a bronze medal with a personal-best mark of 7.56m that ranks third in UM history. Friday also scored for the Hurricane men, placing fourth with a jump of 7.39m. Jacob and Friday combined to score 11 points for the men’s team in the high jump.
“We came in focused,” Friday said. “We all talked about how we wanted to do the best we could. I want to get Field MVP, Innocent wanted a big mark to try to get into nationals and he got third place and Dakota was excited to have a homecoming meet for her and she did great. Then Kyra came through with a personal best and scored as a freshman.”
Andreas Christodoulou opened Day 2 of the men’s heptathlon with a personal-best time of 8.44 in the 60m hurdles. The freshman cleared 4.05m in the pole vault and closed out the heptathlon with a time of 2:48.57 in the 1000m. Christodoulou’s score of 5,020 points ranks third in school history.
In addition to those scoring and medaling for the Canes on Friday, Miami had several women earn places in Saturday’s finals in a variety of track events.
Three Hurricanes advanced to the women’s 400m final, led by junior All-American Shakima Wimbley. Wimbley heads into Saturday’s final as the top seed after running a preliminary time of 53.66 seconds. Freshman Brittny Ellis will be seeded fourth after running a preliminary time of 54.78 seconds and junior Aiyanna Stiverne is seeded seventh after running a preliminary time of 54.82 seconds. The three Canes will compete in the 400m final scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
Wimbley and Stiverne also earned spots in the women’s 200m final, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday. Wilbley will be seeded first after running a preliminary time of 23.71 seconds and Stiverne will be seeded fourth with a personal-best time of 23.85.
Ebony Morrison advanced to the women’s 60m hurdles final after posting a time of 8.26 seconds during Friday’s preliminaries. Morrison, who won Heat 2 to earn her spot in the final, will be seeded fourth in Saturday’s championship race scheduled for 12:40 p.m.
“If you look at the rankings, we advanced more people than we were supposed to and that’s what you want to do,” Deem said. “On the negative, we had three ninth places that hurt a little bit. Those would have been more bonuses, but the kids competed hard. It’s nice to see a lot of personal bests and hopefully we can carry that over and do some more good things tomorrow.”
At the conclusion of Friday’s action, the Miami women were in fifth place with 31 points through seven events and the Hurricane men were in third place with 25 points through six events.
The three-day meet will showcase the best track and field student-athletes in the ACC, competing Thursday through Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.
Boston College will serve as host for the 2016 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships, which will be held this Thursday (Feb. 25) through Saturday (Feb. 27) at the Reggie Lewis Center. There is no charge for admission.
In addition to ACC team and individual titles, conference student-athletes will seek to enhance their rankings heading into the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships, scheduled for March 11-12 at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.
The ACC and ESPN will deliver three hours of live action on the event’s final two days, concluding with the finals on Saturday. Jerry Massey will return for his fourth year handling play-by-play. Lauryn Williams, a former Miami sprinter and a medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, will make her debut as analyst. Coverage of Saturday’s finals will begin on ESPN3 from 1 until 4 p.m., which can be viewed HERE.
For all the latest information on the Miami Hurricanes, follow the official Twitter feed, @MiamiHurricanes, or “Like Us” on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MiamiHurricanes. Follow @CanesTrack on Twitter for specific news on UM track and field and cross country. The program is also on Instagram.
