PREVIEW: Track & Field Begins Outdoor Season at Black & Gold Invite

Friday, March 18

Orlando, Fla.

All Day

University of North Florida

Black & Gold Invite

PREVIEW: Track & Field Begins Outdoor Season at Black & Gold Invite

3/17/2022 4:00:00 PM | Men's Track, Women's Track

Meet Central Live Timing

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The North Florida track and field team will make its outdoor season debut at the Black & Gold Invite hosted by UCF Friday, Mar. 18.

This will be one of two meets that the Ospreys will have at UCF this season, as they will compete next weekend at the Knights Invite as well. It will also be the first of five outdoor meets this season that UNF will be competing inside the state of Florida.

The Ospreys are coming off of an excellent ASUN Indoor Championship performance from a few weeks ago with personal-best marks, top-three placements, and record-breaking times. They will look to shift that moment over to outdoor competition when competing this weekend in Orlando, Fla.

UNF will start at 5 p.m. on Friday evening with high jumpers, runners in the 400m hurdles and 200m dash, and then close out the event with the 1500m and 2000m steeplechase.

LAST TIME OUT

Top Marks at ASUN Indoor Championship
- Kaley Petrosky was the top Osprey jumper at the ASUN meet with a mark of 1.61m that placed her sixth in a field of 18 jumpers, while Isabelle Hays made her debut jump at an ASUN Championship with a mark of 1.56m.
- Tariq Lajoie made a personal-best indoor mark on his high jump in Lynchburg, Va., at 1.97m, which earned him seventh at the meet.

Top Times at ASUN Indoor Championship
- Nathan Jubran was as dominant as ever against the best in the conference with first-place finishes in both the 3000m and 5000m races, including an ASUN Indoor Championship record time in the 3000m.
- Aidan O'Gorman also had times that shattered his previous personal-bests for indoors with a second-place finish in the 5000m and a top-10 finish in the 3000m.
- Jake Turner joined Jubran and O'Gorman in the 3000m race within the top 10, as it was his collegiate debut race for indoor competition.
- Both Timothy Doyle and Robert Pedroza showed up big in their respective races, as Doyle placed fourth in the 800m finals with a program-best indoor time and Pedroza also finished fourth in the 1-mile with a personal-best time.
- All five runners in the 1-mile preliminary race for the women recorded personal-best times, paced by Mia McLain and Emma Jane Schlageter with top-15 finishes.
- Raquel Lespasio also ran a lifetime best in the 5000m as the lone Osprey in that race for the women to finish within the top 20.
- Erica Fisher had an incredible 3000m race as well to finish 15th overall with a time of 10:11.81.

NOTABLE OPPONENTS

The Black & Gold Invite will feature a total of 31 outdoor teams that includes six Power Five schools and three schools from the ASUN. The host site team, UCF, will be one of 11 schools from the state of Florida in this meet.

For the men's side, Kentucky will be one of the top teams at the meet after they finished the 2021 outdoor season as the 15th-ranked team in the nation. Minnesota and Michigan were both ranked within the top 25 as well, along with Southeastern Louisiana being in the top 50 at last season's end. FGCU and Stetson are the ASUN competitors at this meet for the Ospreys, as neither of them competed in the ASUN Outdoor Championship last season.

On the women's side, NC State joins the Wildcats as the top-ranked teams from last season at this meet. Kentucky finished the season ranked 21st, while NC State capped their season off at 26th. Minnesota will also be competing after finishing 40th last season as well. FGCU and Stetson's women also did not compete at the ASUN Outdoor Championship last season.

PIGG'S POINTS

"We are looking forward to kick off the outdoor season at UCF. They always run a great meet and bring excellent competition. The opportunities to run the steeple chase in this meet end eventually the 10,000m makes outdoor season quite a bit different. Our goal generally is to just keep getting better throughout the entire year." -- head coach Jeff Pigg

UP NEXT

The Ospreys will return to Orlando next weekend to compete at UCF for the Knights Invite from Mar. 25-26, while also sending a few runners to the Raleigh Relays hosted by NC State on Friday, Mar. 25.