Liberty University
Liberty Twilight Qualifier
Host Flames Win 9 Liberty Twilight Qualifier Events
5/2/2018 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
The Liberty Twilight Qualifier, the lone home event on the Flames' 2018 outdoor track & field schedule, saw plenty of impressive performances on a sunny, hot Wednesday at the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex. The host team won nine events and posted three new NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round-qualifying efforts.
Liberty honored its 24-member senior class during the meet, and two of those seniors (Graham Hansel – men's steeplechase and Erin Zappia – women's high jump) were among the Flames' event winners. Liberty's other first-place finishers included Alejandro Perlaza Zapata (men's 200), Jahquez Durham (men's 400), Michael Todd (men's 800), Reilly Stroot (men's pole vault open section), William Partridge (men's shot put), Ty'Asia Dansbury (women's 400) and Chelsea Igberaese (women's discus).
Igberaese (167-0) and Patria Vaimaona (166-1) punched their NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round tickets in the women's discus. Perlaza Zapata earned a trip to Tampa in a third different event with his winning 200 time of 20.85 seconds. Meanwhile, Todd's 800 clocking of 1:50.36 puts the junior squarely on the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round bubble.
Two facility records were set by post-collegiate competitors, including Laura Igaune's women's hammer throw of 208-2 and Willy Fink's men's 1,500 clocking of 3:41.94.
Women's Meet Recap
Igberaese and Vaimaona set the tone for Liberty's day during Wednesday's first event, the women's discus. Igberaese's winning throw of 167-0 in round five landed just one centimeter shy of Mychelle Cumings' program-record effort from 2012. The freshman now ranks No. 2 in program history and No. 4 all-time in the Big South.
Vaimaona reached a personal-best 166-1 in the fourth round, placing the junior second in the competition, third all-time at Liberty and No. 5 on the Big South's all-time chart. Both Lady Flames defeated two-time defending Big South champion Makenzie Holmes-DiGiovine of High Point, who took third place at 165-1.
Senior Holly Arey made it three Lady Flames in the discus' top five, reaching a season-best 144-1 for fifth place.
Liberty was strong across the board in the women's throwing events on the day. Just four days after throwing the hammer a program-record 204-4 at the Virginia Grand Prix, Dasiana Larson took second place behind Igaune with a top mark of 196-1. Igberaese added a third-place finish at 176-10.
Vaimaona followed up her discus effort with a shot put runner-up finish (44-4.75), while heptathlete Kemi Moore came in fourth at 38-8.25, adding nearly three feet to her previous best.
Moore posted another fourth-place finish in the javelin (117-2), with Arey taking fifth (115-8) in her first javelin competition of the season and heptathlete Kylie Polsgrove coming in sixth at a personal-best 115-4.
The Lady Flames also displayed their depth in the 400-meter dash, with Dansbury (season-best 55.39), Cortney Dowling (56.08) and Olivia Behymer (57.48) claiming the event's top three places. Liberty's Dowling, Dansbury and Tanner Ealum now rank 1-2-3 on the Big South women's 400 list this season.
Zappia's first-attempt clearance at a season-best 5-5.25 earned the senior's third straight Liberty Twilight Qualifier women's high jump title.
Another of the Lady Flames' seniors, Jessie Glynn pole vaulted 12-6.25 for third place.
Sophomores Jaiden Mulder (collegiate-best 14.25) and Katie Dodson (14.59) placed second and third, respectively, in the women's 100 hurdles final.
After Greer Wilson placed second in the women's 1,500 open section (personal-best 4:59.96), Noel Palmer finished a close second to assistant coach Rebekah Ricksecker in the invitational section with her time of 4:41.14.
Palmer's fellow freshmen starred in the sprints and horizontal jumps on Wednesday. Alexis Wilson took third in the 100 (season-best 11.99) and fourth in the 200 (25.23).
Nikayla Hoyte came in third in the long jump (season-best 18-7) and fourth in the 100 (12.05).
Finally, freshman Hannah Andrews triple jumped a season-best 37-4 for the event's runner-up spot.
Men's Meet Recap
Liberty's men's sprinters took advantage of the hot weather and tailwinds to post some sizzling times, headlined by Perlaza Zapata's winning 200 time of 20.85. The Olympian's clocking was the fastest by a Flame in 21 years and ranks No. 3 all-time at Liberty.
Perlaza Zapata led five Flames under the 22-second mark on the day, also including Greg Edwards (third place, personal-best 21.33), Travis Henderson (sixth, 21.50), Durham (eighth, tied collegiate best of 21.67) and Jonathan Doss (13th, personal-best 21.95).
Earlier in the afternoon, Henderson had placed fifth in the men's 100 final at 10.56 after racing to a personal-best time of 10.54 (No. 10 all-time at Liberty) in the prelims. It took a time of 10.65 to make the 100 final, leaving out the Flames' Brad Smalley (10.71) and Doss (10.82), both of whom slashed significant time from their previous bests.
Henderson, Perlaza Zapata, Edwards and Durham teamed up for second place in the men's 4 x 100 relay. Their 40.63 clocking, the fastest by a Flames quartet since 2001, ranks No. 6 in program history.
Durham went on to wrap up the sprinters' afternoon with a 400 victory (48.88).
Todd's winning 800 time of 1:50.36 marks a season best. Four days after racing to a program-record 1:48.96 in the Virginia Grand Prix 800, Colin Schultz came in third at 1:52.43.
Immediately after the Senior Day ceremony, Hansel's first track race in three years resulted in a steeplechase triumph in 9:49.56. Teammate Jack Tidball was second at 10:21.64.
Liberty's number of 16-foot pole vaulters this season doubled from two to four on Wednesday. In the invitational section, Carson Waters took sixth place at 16-7.5 while Ryan McCann joined the 16-foot club for the first time. His 16-1.75 clearance tied for seventh place in the section.
Later on, Reilly Stroot also made his 16-foot debut. The sophomore from Minnesota added 7.75 inches to his previous best, clearing 16-1.75 to win the pole vault's open section.
Partridge heaved the shot put 51-1.75 to win, while Alexander Hoffsmith's 190-3 javelin was good for second place.
Jeremiah McCants' triple jump personal best of 45-6.25 stood up for fifth place.
Best known for his hurdling, Branson Rolle displayed his overall athletic ability by high jumping a personal-best 6-5.5 for second place and placing fourth at 185-7 in the freshman's javelin debut. Liberty now ranks 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 on this year's Big South men's javelin chart, although only four of them will be able to enter the conference meet next week.
Competing for the first time since April 7 due to injury, decathlete Markus Ballengee took part in four events on the day. He came in fourth in the discus (135-3), fifth in the high jump (6-1.5), sixth in the shot put (equaling his personal best of 44-3.5) and ninth in the javelin (158-4).
Up Next
Liberty will attempt to defend its men's and women's team titles at the 2018 Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is slated for May 9-11 at Vert Stadium in High Point, N.C.
The Liberty men's squad has won 11 straight Big South men's outdoor team championships, while the Lady Flames have been victorious three years in a row.
