Liberty University
ASUN Indoor Track Championships
Host Liberty Sweeps Men’s, Women’s ASUN Indoor Track & Field Titles
2/26/2023 12:23:15 AM | Track and Field
Hosting the ASUN Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships for the final time on Saturday, both the Liberty men’s and women’s squads claimed team titles. It was the Flames’ fifth consecutive ASUN crown, while the Lady Flames made it back-to-back championships at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
Trailing Kennesaw State entering the second and final day of competition, the Liberty men’s team roared back to win seven of 12 events contested on Saturday. As a result, the Flames pulled out a 57-point victory (235-178) over the Owls for their 26th straight indoor conference crown overall, dating back to the inaugural Big South Indoor Track & Field Championships in 1998. Liberty has never lost a men’s indoor track & field conference meet at the NCAA Division I level and owns the longest active streak of conference titles in Division I.
Aided by Most Valuable Female Performer Calli Doan, the Lady Flames held off Kennesaw State, 171-155, for their second straight title and fourth in five years of ASUN Conference membership.
Lance Bingham was voted ASUN Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year and has now earned eight such honors in three seasons at the helm.
Doan paced all competitors, male and female, with 28 points while competing in the three longest races of the meet. The All-American clinched the Lady Flames’ team championship with her 3K victory late in the meet, coming in a program and meet-record time of 9:24.67. She had previously won the 5K Friday evening and placed second in the mile earlier on Saturday.
Doan was one of 10 Liberty event winners on Saturday, boosting the Flames’ total to 13 first-place finishes over the course of the meet.
Omari Lewis (men’s 60, program-record 6.70) and Brendan Pitcher (men’s 800, Liberty freshman-record 1:50.94) both joined Doan in breaking records on Saturday. Other men’s champions included Anthony Bryan (heptathlon, 5,248), Prosper Ekporere (men’s 60 hurdles, 8.09), Donald McClinton (men’s 200, 21.10), Kennedy Sauder (men’s high jump, 7-2.5) and Joshua Smith (men’s triple jump, 49-7.75). Of Liberty’s seven men’s event champions, only Bryan and Sauder were active a year ago at the 2022 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Megan Mann (women’s shot put, 48-5.5) and Makenzy Mizera (women’s triple jump, 41-5.25) won the two women’s field events contested on Saturday.
Men’s Day 2 Recap
Kennesaw State led Liberty by 12 points (71-59) after Friday’s five disciplines. But the Flames quickly erased that deficit by outscoring the Owls 68-6 in the first three events to be completed on Saturday (heptathlon, mile and 60 hurdles).
Bryan scored 5,248 points to claim his second ASUN heptathlon title in three years, leading a 1-2-4-5-6 Liberty finish which netted 30 points. Cole Peterlin (second place, 5,203) and Daniel Van Duren (fourth, 5,117) became the 10th and 11th Flames ever to score 5,000 points in a heptathlon.
After Kyle Harkabus edged North Florida’s Timothy Doyle in a lean at the finish line for third in the men’s mile (4:04.68), Liberty’s 60 hurdles crew reeled in 31 more points.
For the second time in three years at this meet, the Flames swept all three podium spots in the 60 hurdles with Ekporere (8.09), Felix Lawrence (8.11) and Peterlin (8.23) doing the honors.
Liberty later all but sealed victory by winning four consecutive events, including the 60, 800, 200 and high jump.
First-year Flame Lewis clocked 6.70 to win the 60 title and break Christian Lyon’s program record of 6.71 set while winning the 2020 ASUN title. About a half hour later, Lewis ran a personal-best 21.19 to finish second behind McClinton’s winning 200 time of 21.10. McClinton became the fourth different Flame to win the one-lap race in the last five years at this meet.
In between the two sprint titles came arguably the Flames’ most improbable event victory of the day. Pitcher arrived at Liberty with an 800 personal best of 1:54.08 and redshirted the 2021-22 campaign. Wearing a Flames uniform for the first time this season, he claimed the Flames’ first ASUN men’s 800 title in a Liberty freshman-record time of 1:50.94. That is tied with Johnny Prettyman for second in program history.
Sauder successfully defended his men’s high jump crown in his final tuneup for a likely NCAA bid, but it was not easy. He needed third-attempt clearances at 7-1 and 7-2.5 to emerge victorious from a fierce head-to-head battle with the Kennesaw State duo of Juan Cavazos II and Sultan Simms.
Smith became the Flames’ second freshman to win an event on Saturday, putting an exclamation point on things. He triple jumped a personal-best 49-7.75 on his sixth and final attempt to leapfrog Kennesaw State’s Justin Campbell for the win. Smith’s victory was especially timely with defending champion and teammate Quinten Clay missing the competition due to injury.
Women’s Day 2 Recap
Mizera started off the Lady Flames’ Saturday with a long-awaited gold medal and a bit of redemption. All five of her legal marks would have won the competition, including her season-best 41-5.25 effort in round six. Mizera claimed her first ASUN triple jump title after four previous runner-up finishes (2 indoor, 2 outdoor) and successfully bounced back after fouling all three long jump attempts on Friday.
Competing in the last of her eight events this weekend, pentathlon champion Meredith Engle triple jumped a personal-best 38-11.5 to finish fourth in the event for the second consecutive season.
Mann won her first ASUN title, claiming top honors in the women’s shot put by two and a half feet with her personal-best 48-5.5 mark which moved her up to fourth all-time for the Lady Flames. Classmate Sofia Mojica also recorded a big personal best (43-9.75) on her way to fourth place.
First-year Lady Flame Indea Cartwright fared well in both of her events, taking second in the 60 hurdles (8.34) and fifth in the 200 (24.63) with a time that was good for 10th all-time at Liberty.
However, the Owls gradually chipped away at Liberty’s lead until it was down to nine points heading into the 3K, the penultimate event.
Two and a half hours after running 4:43.28 for second place in the mile, Doan toed the line for the 3K. She outsprinted Lipscomb’s Lydia Miller down the final straightaway to win in a record-setting time of 9:24.67 which shattered her previous best of 9:36.19. Those 10 points, paired with the one Anna Hostetler scored for her eighth-place showing in 9:43.62, clinched the team trophy.
Doan was one of three runners to best the meet record of 9:30.38 set by Kennesaw State’s Lindsay Billings in 2021. She also just dipped under teammate Adelyn Ackley-Fairley’s program standard of 9:24.96 set a year ago.
Final Men’s Team Scores
1) Liberty – 235
2) Kennesaw State – 178
3) North Florida – 71
4) Eastern Kentucky – 67
5) Central Arkansas – 48
6) Bellarmine – 34
7) Lipscomb – 18
8) Queens – 9
Final Women’s Team Scores
1) Liberty – 171
2) Kennesaw State – 155
3) Lipscomb – 79
4) Austin Peay – 64
5) Jacksonville – 46
6) Central Arkansas – 41.5
7) Queens – 41
8) Eastern Kentucky – 28
9) Bellarmine – 21
10) North Florida – 10.5
11) Jacksonville State – 3
Most Valuable Male Performer
Aidan O’Gorman, North Florida
Most Valuable Female Performer
Calli Doan, Liberty
Men’s Coach of the Year
Lance Bingham, Liberty
Women’s Coach of the Year
Lance Bingham, Liberty
Men’s Day 2 ASUN Champions
Anthony Bryan – Heptathlon – 5,248
Prosper Ekporere – 60 Hurdles – 8.09
Omari Lewis – 60 – 6.70
Donald McClinton – 200 – 21.10
Brendan Pitcher – 800 – 1:50.94
Kennedy Sauder – High Jump – 7-2.5
Joshua Smith – Triple Jump – 49-7.75
Women’s Day 2 ASUN Champions
Calli Doan – 3K – 9:24.67
Megan Mann – Shot Put – 48-5.5
Makenzy Mizera – Triple Jump – 41-5.25
Other Men’s Day 2 Top 3 Finishers
2nd – Felix Lawrence – 60 Hurdles – 8.11
2nd – Omari Lewis – 200 – 21.19
2nd – Kevin Nedrick – Shot Put – 61-5.5
2nd – Cole Peterlin – Heptathlon – 5,203
3rd – Kyle Harkabus – Mile – 4:04.68
3rd – Ally Kipchirchir – 800 – 1:51.61
3rd – Tristian Merchant – 3K – 8:10.09
3rd – Cole Peterlin – 60 Hurdles – 8.23
Other Women’s Day 2 Top 3 Finishers
2nd – Indea Cartwright – 60 Hurdles – 8.34
2nd – Calli Doan – Mile – 4:43.28
3rd – Dawn Hilton, Patasha Bryan, Jasmine Williams, Jezelle Shaw – 4 x 400 – 3:48.57
Men’s Day 2 Record Breakers
Liberty Record – 60 – Omari Lewis – 6.70
Previous Record: 6.71 by Christian Lyon on Feb. 29, 2020 at the ASUN Championship
Liberty Freshman Record – 800 – Brendan Pitcher – 1:50.94
Previous Record: Unknown
Women’s Day 2 Record Breakers
Liberty Record – 3K – Calli Doan – 9:24.67
Previous Record: 9:24.96 by Adelyn Ackley-Fairley on Feb. 5, 2022 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Meet Record – 3K – Calli Doan – 9:24.67
Previous Record: 9:30.38 by Kennesaw State’s Lindsay Billings in 2021
Day 2 Updates to Liberty’s All-Time Men’s Top 10 List
60 – No. 1 – Omari Lewis – 6.70
800 – Tie for No. 2 – Brendan Pitcher – 1:50.94
200 – No. 5 – Omari Lewis – 21.19
Triple Jump – No. 6 – Joshua Smith – 49-7.75
Heptathlon – No. 6 – Cole Peterlin – 5,203
Heptathlon – No. 9 – Daniel Van Duren – 5,117
Day 2 Updates to Liberty’s All-Time Women’s Top 10 List
3K – No. 1 – Calli Doan – 9:24.67
Shot Put – No. 4 – Megan Mann – 48-5.5
200 – No. 10 – Indea Cartwright – 24.63
Up Next
The 2023 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships are slated for March 10-11 at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, N.M. The full field of participants will be announced Tuesday evening on NCAA.com, and Liberty’s Kennedy Sauder (men’s high jump) is expected to be included for the second year in a row with Warren Barrett (men’s shot put) on the bubble.
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