Liberty University
Big South Outdoor Track Championships
Vaimaona, Waters, Pratt Break Records on Big South Day 1
5/9/2018 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Liberty's field event athletes shone brightly on the opening day of the 2018 Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships, contested Wednesday at Vert Stadium. They accounted for all four of the Flames' victories, three of which came in record-breaking fashion, helping Liberty jump to the top of the men's and women's team standings.
Patria Vaimaona got the meet started with a Big South, Liberty and meet-record women's discus throw of 168-7, a few hours before Brenna Smith captured her second straight Big South women's javelin title at 152-5. Through four women's events, the Lady Flames lead second-place Campbell by a score of 54-31.
Carson Waters won the men's pole vault with a meet-record clearance of 17-4.25, while Denzel Pratt's facility-record throw of 222-8 led a 1-2-3-4 Liberty sweep of the men's javelin. The Flames racked up 66 points during Wednesday's five men's events, as compared with 39 for second-place Campbell.
Women's Day One Recap
Competing in her first-ever Big South event final after redshirting the indoor season, Vaimaona overtook two-time defending champion Makenzi Holmes-DiGiovine of High Point for good with her second-round effort of 164-10. The junior from Hawaii then took down the Big South all-time, meet and school records with her 168-7 bomb in round five.
Prior to Wednesday, the conference record of 168-5 had been held by Winthrop's Ashley Howard since 2010. Mychelle Cumings was the previous meet (166-11 in 2013) and program (167-0 in 2012) record holder for the Lady Flames.
Liberty totaled 21 points in the women's discus, as freshman Chelsea Igberaese came in third at 151-0 and senior Holly Arey took fourth at 142-9.
The Lady Flames added 22 more points in the women's javelin, paced by Smith's second consecutive title. The senior recorded the competition's four longest throws, topped by a 152-5 effort in round four which won the event by 22 feet.
Competing in her fifth event of the day, Kemi Moore edged teammate Savannah Pidkaminy for fourth place, with both Lady Flames' throws converting to 116-8. Arey reached 113-8 for a sixth-place showing, the Pennsylvania native's highest finish in four career Big South javelin competitions.
Freshman Nikayla Hoyte earned an All-Big South medal in the women's long jump in dramatic fashion. She stretched the tape to 18-4.5 on her sixth and final attempt, catapulting from eighth place all the way up to third.
Kammi Kurtz (personal-best 37:45.86) took fifth place in the women's 10K, while Greer Wilson clocked 39:35.62 for eighth, closing out the Lady Flames' scoring.
Defending heptathlon champion Kylie Polsgrove tallied 3,043 points during Wednesday's four events, giving her a 338-point lead heading into day two. She topped the field of heptathletes in the 100 hurdles (14.43), high jump (5-2.5) and 200 (25.70), while also posting a personal-best 35-2 shot put.
Speaking of the shot put, Moore's stellar effort in the event highlighted day one of her first-ever heptathlon. The sophomore from Maryland won the heptathlon shot put with a personal-best mark of 40-0, setting a new program heptathlon record for the event. Through four events, she sits in sixth place overall with 2,523 points.
Liberty qualified a trio of sprinters to Friday's women's 200 final. Freshman Ty'Asia Dansbury led the way with the event's fastest qualifying time (23.95), moving into third place all-time at Liberty. Classmate Alexis Wilson (personal-best 24.57) and sophomore Cortney Dowling (season-best 24.83) also advanced successfully.
Kimone Green was the No. 1 qualifier for the women's 400 hurdles final after winning her heat in 1:00.61.
Men's Day One Recap
For the first time since the inaugural Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 1994, Liberty swept the men's javelin's top four places for 29 big team points. Pratt's season-best 222-8 heave enabled the junior to successfully defend his conference title and break former teammate Steve Feister's facility record (221-1) from the 2016 season.
For the second year in a row, Samuel Arter finished second to Pratt, thanks to a mark of 196-10. Caleb Hart took a break from the decathlon competition to place third (186-7), while Branson Rolle made it two Bahamians (also Pratt) in the top four with a personal-best 185-8 heave. Rolle ended up 23.5 feet ahead of the event's top non-Liberty competitor (High Point's Britton Mann).
Waters became the first back-to-back men's pole vault champion at this meet since Liberty's Kolby Shepherd in 2011 and 2012. The Floridian got over a personal-best 17-4.25 on his first attempt, taking down the meet record of 17-2.75 set by High Point's Austin Miller two years ago.
Waters then took good attempts at 17-9, which would have broken Shepherd's school and Big South records of 17-8.5 if successful.
Three sophomore teammates joined Waters in the top six, including Ryan McCann (third place, tied personal best of 16-1.75), Markus Ballengee (fourth, 15-7.75) and Reilly Stroot (sixth, 15-1.75).
All three of Liberty men's long jumpers scored points, led by Darrel Jones in sixth place at 22-3. Brad Smalley landed at 22-1.5 for seventh, with Ballengee ending up eighth at 21-11.5.
William Partridge's 139-11 stood up for sixth place in the men's discus.
Freshman Augostine Lisoreng's 10K track debut resulted in a time of 31:47.60 for fifth place.
Halfway through the decathlon competition, Chukwuma Maduka sits second (3,411 points) with Jeremy Davis in third (3,331). Maduka placed second in the decathlon 100 (11.25), shot put (40-2.75) and high jump (6-1.25). Davis got off to a strong start with victories in the decathlon 100 (personal-best 11.22) and long jump (22-4.5) before closing out his day with a personal-best 52.37 in the 400-meter dash.
Liberty sprinters dropped four of the five fastest qualifying times in the men's 200 prelims, including Alejandro Perlaza Zapata (21.28), Jahquez Durham (personal-best 21.48), Travis Henderson (21.66) and Greg Edwards (21.67).
Rolle's 52.25 effort was the fastest time among the men's 400 hurdles heats, while Ballengee (53.94) and Isidro Johnson (55.39) also moved on to Friday's final with personal-best efforts.
Up Next
Day two of the 2018 Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships will begin Thursday at 11 a.m. with the women's high jump.
