Canes Close "Doc Hale" Elite Meet with Five PRs
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The “Doc Hale” Elite Meet treated the University of Miami Track and Field team well as the team registered five more personal best marks on the final day of the meet.
The Canes matched Friday night’s performance, and now have registered 10 personal best marks over the two-day meet with six marks coming out of field events.
Symone Mason made a statement on the track in the women’s 200m, finishing first with an indoor personal best time of 23.76. Saturday’s win was the 2018 Outdoor ACC Track MVP’s first event win of the season. Tiara McMinn finished third, after winning heat two with a time of 24.17. Senior Brittny Ellis closed out the top-five finishers with a time of 24.26.
“The 200 is going to be a great breakthrough for Symone this indoor season,” head coach Amy Deem said. “She’s been training extremely hard this season and we were looking to see her put what she’s done in practice and I think we saw her execute some of that today. I’m excited to see what she can accomplish these next few weeks.”
Miami was well represented in the women’s field events, with four Canes recording personal bests. Freshman Molly Caudery started the day off clearing the first two marks with ease and finished the event registering a collegiate-best mark of 4.18m
” Molly got off to a slow start this season due to summer competitions, but coach Rob Jarvis and I both think she’s starting to get better and better and will be where she needs to be in the next three weeks,” Deem said.
Senior Celine Thompson won the women’s high jump with a personal best mark of 1.74m, clearing the mark on her first attempt.
The Canes dominated the women’s shot put with freshmen Selina Dantzler finishing second with a mark of 15.62m and Hannah-Sophia Hall recording a personal best mark of 14.87m to finish third.
“We have a young team when it comes to the field events and it’s great to watch them each week get better and better and I think we saw that this weekend,” Deem said.
Peyton Russell closed out the field events for the women, boasting a first place finish among collegiate athletes and a personal best mark of 12.40m in the women’s triple jump. Hasani Knight finished the men’s triple jump with a mark of 15.04m.
Freshman Thomas Burns continues to show promise on the track after finishing third in the men’s 200m with a time of 21.70, tying Robert Grant for the fifth best time in program history. Burns now holds two top-five marks in UM history after three meets with the Canes. He previously recorded the fourth best time in the 400m at the UAB Vulcan Invite.
The women’s 4x400m relay featured its third different lineup of the season and finished second, posting a time of 3:40.51. Carolyn Brown ran the first leg, followed by Michelle Atherley, Kayla Johnson and Amuru Patterson as the anchor.
The Canes close out its stretch of three consecutive road meets next weekend at the Tiger Paw Invite in Clemson, S.C. on Feb. 8 – 9.
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