@OspreyXCTF Women Open Outdoor Season Well at UNF Spring Break Invitational

Friday, March 25

10:00 a.m.

University of North Florida

UNF Spring Break Invitational

Photo by: Todd Drexler

@OspreyXCTF Women Open Outdoor Season Well at UNF Spring Break Invitational

3/25/2016 8:13:00 PM | Women's Track

By: North Florida Athletics

Friday Results PDF | HTML

JACKSONVILLE -- The North Florida women's track and field squad opened up the outdoor portion of their schedule Friday in the UNF Spring Break Invitational at Hodges Stadium. Highlights of the day included several personal records along with a pair of event titles and runner-up finishes.

Vanessa Philbert led a quartet of strong performers in the 800m, claiming the event title with a time of 2:10, while freshman Audrey Carpenter earned the title in her debut performance in the 3,000m Steeplechase with a time of 11:31 with teammate Kelly Hensley second (11:31). Megan Walker remained a consistent top level performer in the pole vault finishing runner-up with a mark of 11-11.75 and Alyssa Young posted a personal best 5-07 leap in the high jump to finish second.

Other outstanding performances for the Ospreys on Friday included Tianna Hearn's personal best 1:02 in the 400m hurdles along with a personal record 18:17 for Grace Meyer in the 5000m.

"We were fortunate with the weather to be able to get today's competition in," said head coach Jeff Pigg. "It's exciting to see such a large group of athletes at the meet and even more exciting to see our team have some outstanding performances to start the outdoor season. We have a lot of kids on our team that have worked hard to build a solid base and want to continue raising the level and I felt like we saw some great things today.

"It was great to see Audrey have a strong debut in the steeplechase. I thought she did a nice job of navigating all the obstacles and worked together with Kelly to earn the one-two finish. Grace improved her time in the 5000 by about 35 seconds and it was nice to see because she has been working extremely hard in practice as have many of our runners. We've kind of felt like Tianna was going to get a PR but it is always nice to actually see it in the results so we're proud of her effort today. Megan again demonstrated her consistency in the pole vault and I felt like Alyssa Young's performance in the high jump was a real highlight as her jump put her really close to a regional qualifying mark. Excited to see the group of 800m runners all have personal bests or near record performances, too."

North Florida makes a quick return to action as the Ospreys will compete in the Florida Relays next weekend (Apr. 1-2) in Gainesville. Fla.

Women's Results (Friday, Mar. 25)

100m Hurdles (prelim)
15. Tianna Hearn (15.33)

400m
7. Hallie Grimes (56.87) PR
20. Alyssa Younker (59.53) PR
42. Carly Jaskulski (1:05.74)

400m Hurdles
6. Tianna Hearn (1:02.07) PR

800m
1. Vanessa Philbert (2:10.70)
7. Tayler Johnson (2:14.05) PR
13. Harley Horsley (2:16.42) PR
17. Kaitlin King (2:19.93) PR

1500m
5. Morgan Rodriguez (4:39.47) PR
6. Alexis Irwin (4:40.79)
7. Emily Stallings (4:41.44)
12. Emily Kerns (4:43.66) PR
15. Rachel Licea (4:45.84) PR

3000m Steeplechase
1. Audrey Carpenter (11:31.55) PR
2. Kelly Hensley (11:31.69)

5000m
5. Grace Meyer (18:17.39) PR
9. Lauren Gonzalez (18:29.97)
21. Courteney Zboyan (18:57.89) PR

Pole Vault
2. Megan Walker (3.65m / 11'11.75")

High Jump
2. Alyssa Young (1.70m / 5'07.00") PR
4. Alexandra Ellis (1.60m / 5'03.00")