Atherley Leads Heptathlon at Hurricane Alumni Invitational
CORAL GABELS, Fla. – Michelle Atherley and Kevin Arreaga brought the heat to Cobb Stadium on Friday for the first day of the Hurricane Alumni Invitational.
Atherley, the 2019 NCAA Indoor Pentathlon Champion, got the action started, competing in her first heptathlon of the outdoor season with the 100m hurdles. The senior won the first event with a time of 13.16 seconds and carried momentum into the high jump, finishing second with a mark of 1.75m.
Atherley went on to win the final two events of the day with a 12.49m throw in the shot put, before running a collegiate-best time of 23.97 seconds in the 200m dash. After four events, Atherley leads the heptathlon with 3,694 points, 339 ahead of second place.
Arreaga, a redshirt sophomore, won the men’s hammer throw with a mark of 70.75m, just shy of his collegiate-best mark of 71.07m he set at the Power 5 Trailblazer Challenge.
Senior Andreas Christodoulou competed in the decathlon for the first time this season, finishing third after completing the first five events. The Cyprus native finished fourth in the men’s 100m dash with a time of 11.30 seconds and second in the long jump with a mark of 6.99m.
Christodoulou’s sixth-place finish in the shot put was his lowest finish of the day, as he went on to finish second in the high jump with a mark of 1.74m and fourth in the 400m dash with a time of 52.48 seconds.
The Canes concluded the day with two field events, as sophomore Debbie Ajagbe finished 12th in the women’s hammer throw with a mark of 48.37m. Senior Celine Thompson and Olivia Jones were the final Canes to compete, as the pair finished the day in the women’s high jump. Thompson’s mark of 1.66m was good for a sixth-place finish and Jones debuted for Miami with a mark of 1.61m.
Day 2 of the Invitational is set to begin tomorrow at 11:30 a.m., as Atherley starts with the women’s long jump, followed by Christodoulou in the men’s 110m hurdles. Miami will honor its nine seniors at 6:10 p.m., during the women’s 5,000m run and will recognize Atherley’s NCAA Championship performance and the 2019 ACC Indoor Championship team at 7:15 p.m.
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