Liberty University
Liberty Collegiate Invitational
Liberty Wins 7 Events on Wind-Swept Saturday
4/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Despite battling fierce winds all day at the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex, the Liberty men's and women's track & field teams still fared well on Saturday at the Liberty Collegiate Invitational. The Flames and Lady Flames won seven events and notched two new ECAC qualifiers.
Men's Meet Recap
Three of Liberty's event victories came in the men's field events, highlighted by Kolby Shepherd's third Liberty Collegiate Invitational pole vault triumph in the last four years. With the event forced indoors due to the gusty wind conditions, Shepherd took advantage of the familiar runway inside the Tolsma Indoor Track Center.
The redshirt junior won the event by more than a foot with a first-attempt clearance at 17-0.75, before making three credible attempts at what would have been a new school record, 17-7.25.
It was Shepherd's first time cracking the 17-foot barrier in a Liberty uniform, and he is the first Liberty pole vaulter to go over 17 feet since Ken Howell in 1999. Shepherd and Howell now share third place on the Flames' all-time outdoor pole vault performance list.
At the time of this writing, Shepherd was one of only 14 NCAA Division I men's pole vaulters in the nation who have eclipsed the 17-foot barrier during the 2011 outdoor season. He is also one of only four vaulters to do so in program history.
Redshirt sophomore Ryan Smith set a new outdoor personal best in the shot put at 57-11.25, winning his specialty event for the third straight year at this meet. He topped the competition by nearly four feet and now ranks No. 11 nationally in the men's shot put.
Anthony Bryant caught a nice gust of wind on his opening triple jump attempt, and it helped him stretch out to his winning distance of 50-2.75. However, the tailwind of 4.4 m/s was over the limit and the mark will not count toward NCAA qualification.
Isaac Wendland employed an interesting strategy to win the Liberty Collegiate Invitational men's 800 crown for the second time in three seasons. After clocking 61 seconds for his opening lap, Wendland powered through a 54-second closing 400 for a winning time of 1:55.34. Jordan Bright backed him up with a fifth-place finish in the event, at 1:57.12.
The Flames' final event victory came under the lights in the 4 x 400 relay, as Taylor Courtney overtook Winston-Salem State's anchor on the final straightaway. Courtney, Andre Washington, Chris Johnson and Paul Arslain teamed up to win the event in 3:18.86.
Never was the wind stronger on Saturday than during the 1,500-meter run. However, Liberty was able to take three of the event's top eight spots, and all three runners posted season-best clockings.
Jarred Cornfield ran 3:58.01 for second place, David Ricksecker was fifth in 4:00.70 and Andrew Rigler came in eighth at 4:02.98.
Other lofty finishes on the track went to Zach Barker (fourth in the steeplechase at 10:12.81) and Anthony Settje (sixth in the 100 at 11.05).
Returning to the field events, Kevin Reddington long jumped 22-0.25 for third place on a busy day. Earlier in the morning, the sophomore had sung the meet's national anthem as part of a trio.
After winning the men's javelin title on Friday, Elliot Galeone tossed the discus 166-2 for third place. Winning the event was Liberty assistant coach Clendon Henderson, at 173-4. It was the fifth straight Liberty Collegiate Invitational men's discus championship for Henderson.
Finally, Drew Edwards was Liberty's top finisher in the decathlon, placing fourth with 5,881 points. Teammate Taylor Schmidt, who is redshirting during the 2011 outdoor campaign, won the event with a score of 6,853.
Women's Meet Recap
Like Shepherd in the men's pole vault, Shelley Parker took advantage of a respite from the wind during an indoor women's pole vault competition. She joined the 12-foot club for the first time on Saturday, sailing over 12-1.5 on her first attempt to sew up second place in the event and an ECAC qualifier.
Only the fourth Lady Flame ever to pole vault over 12 feet, Parker now ranks No. 2 all-time on Liberty's outdoor list.
Also qualifying for the ECAC meet on Saturday was Krystle Matthews, who earned her second Liberty Collegiate Invitational heptathlon title in a row with 4,605 points. She won both the heptathlon long jump (16-10) and javelin (120-4) disciplines on the multi-event's second day, enabling her to outdistance runner-up Ashley Bault of Marietta by 303 points.
Alyssa Pegues was the Lady Flames' other event victor, taking the triple jump title at 38-9.75.
Christina Mitchell did not attempt the heptathlon at this meet, but did take part in several individual events. Her personal-best 400-meter hurdles time of 1:04.03 notched a sixth-place finish. She also recorded an outdoor personal-best shot put throw of 38-6, taking 14th place in the event and climbing into the No. 10 spot in program history.
Liberty underclassmen provided three other top five event finishes on Saturday, including Khristina Kanagy's fourth-place effort in the 1,500. She cut through the wind for a personal-best time of 4:50.12.
Freshman Jocelyn Williams ended up fifth in the women's discus, thanks to a 131-10 toss. She now sits No. 7 in Liberty history for the event. Classmate Jessica Gass ran a 12:39.95 in her steeplechase debut, coming in fifth.
Meanwhile, Liberty alumni performed well in the women's 800, as Rebekah Ricksecker won in 2:16.19 and Chenoa Freeman came in third at 2:17.93. Both Ricksecker and Freeman were seniors on last year's Big South "Double Triple" squad.
Liberty will split its team up between three different meets next week, including the Texas Relays, the Carolina's Classic and the Lynchburg College Classic. The Texas Relays will be the first of the three events to get started, opening up Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
