The East Tennessee State University men’s and women’s track and field teams began their outdoor season at the Charlotte 49er Classic, according to a March 21 statement. Eight athletes from ETSU achieved a total of ten personal bests during the first full weekend of competition.
The event featured strong performances across both track and field events. In the women’s hammer throw, an athlete opened her outdoor campaign with a personal best of 46.44 meters, finishing in 11th place, and also ranked 12th in the discus with a throw of 37.97 meters. Another team member set a personal record in the javelin with a distance of 25.95 meters, while Sophia Edwards secured a top-10 finish in the pole vault by clearing 3.30 meters.
On the track, one competitor placed eighth in the women’s 100-meter dash with a time of 11.80 seconds and finished tenth in the 200-meter dash at 24.29 seconds. Another athlete earned the only podium finish for ETSU women by completing the 3000-meter steeplechase in 11:15.68, while another finished fifth in the women’s 10,000-meter run with a time of 37:34.83. Additional highlights included ninth place in the women’s 800 meters at 2:16.62 and another personal record set at 2:24.34.
For the men’s team, distance runners led several events. Garrett Hawkins won the men’s open race for ETSU by running a time of 14:45.59 in the men’s 5000 meters. Nathan Hillis took podium honors in the men’s steeplechase with a time of 9:37.30 and later finished fourth in the men’s 3000 meters at 8:58.22. Hayden Waleski achieved two personal bests—3:57.90 for twenty-first place in the men’s fifteen hundred meters and eleventh place with a time of 1:54.65 in the eight hundred meters.
Other notable performances included Ben Smith’s personal best of forty-nine point seventy-eight seconds in the four hundred meters, Theo Curling’s twenty-four point forty-four seconds in two hundred meters, and Nolan Pedota’s thirty-two minutes thirty-four point sixty-two seconds finish for tenth thousand meter run.
In field events, Grant Winegar threw his javelin to forty-three point fifty-eight meters on Friday for twenty-first place overall—a new personal best—and added another personal record on Saturday with thirty-four point thirty-one meter discus throw; freshman Jack Wilson debuted well by throwing thirty-seven point fifty meters to finish twenty-eighth.
ETSU also entered one athlete each into multi-event competitions; one finished tenth overall (eighth among college competitors) scoring four thousand one hundred eighty-eight points in heptathlon while Gavin Deery placed seventh scoring five thousand five hundred seventy-six points for decathlon.
The Buccaneers are scheduled to compete next weekend at Raleigh Relays starting March twenty-sixth; coverage will be available on ACC Network Extra.
