Atherley and Men's 4x400 Break Program Records
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Track and Field program showed out on its home track on the final day of the Hurricane Alumni Invitational, breaking program records and registering personal-best times in multiple events.
Michelle Atherley broke Miami’s record in the women’s heptathlon, scoring 5,966 points on Saturday. The NCAA Indoor Pentathlon Champion closed out the final three events of the hep with mark of 5.94m in the long jump, 33.35m in the javelin and a first-place finish in the 800m dash, finishing with a time of 2:14.44.
Atherley’s score currently ranks second in the NCAA and first in both the ACC and the East Coast region.
Atherley was joined by the men’s 4x400m relay team, which also broke the program’s record to end the day. The squad made up of McKinly Brown, Tyrees Moulton, Thomas Burns and Davonte Fuller combined to run a time of 3:06.75, breaking a 23-year record.
Miami’s relay team finished second overall to LSU, which ran a new NCAA leading time of 3:02.88.
Sophomore Debbie Ajagbe was the first Cane to record a personal-best mark, as the Miami native finished first in the discus with a mark of 56.39m. Senior Zakiya Rashid finished fourth with a mark of 54.92m, while freshman Hannah-Sophia Hall also boasted a personal-best mark at 46.49m. Sherry Lubin recorded a mark of 41.28m.
The Canes took the top-four finishes in the shot put, as Ajagbe won her second event of the day, followed by Lubin, Rashid and Hall.
The women’s 4x100m relay team finished with the second-fastest collegiate time, as Carolyn Brown, Amuru Patterson, Symone Mason and Tiara McMinnn registered a time of 44.38 seconds. The men’s team also boasted the second-fastest collegiate time at 40.14 seconds.
Along with helping the Canes break a program record, Burns also ran a collegiate-best time of 47.27 in the men’s 400m dash and finished eighth overall.
Sophomore Amuru Patterson recorded her first personal-best time in the women’s 100m dash, finishing seventh with a time of 11.46 seconds. Senior Carolyn Brown finished 13th with a time of 11.57 seconds. Patterson’s second personal-best time came in the 200m dash, as the Miami native finished sixth with her time of 23.63.
Redshirt junior Brittny Ellis finished with a time of 23.99 seconds, while Symone Mason finished just behind her at 24 seconds flat in the 200m. Sophomore Emma Langlois won the women’s 5,000m run with a personal-best time of 18:49.97.
On the men’s side, Hasani Knight also registered a collegiate-best mark in the triple jump with a mark of 15.44m, which ranks as the third-best mark in Miami history.
Miami will be off for one weekend before traveling back to Gainesville, Fla., for the Tom Jones Memorial on April 26-27.
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