JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 14, 2022) – Highlighted by five gold medals and nine total podium finishes, the ETSU men’s and women’s track and field programs had a strong showing in the opener of the ETSU Track & Field Invitational, which started Friday inside the Mini Dome.    

PODIUM FINISHES

First Place – Symphony Buxton (Weight Throw); Lindsey Stallworth (Mile); Jaclyn Wright (High Jump); Women’s 4x800m Relay “A Team” (Hannah Burhart, Alyssa Galvin, Lindsey Stallworth and Makayla Shaw); Men’s 4x800m Relay “A Team” (Brayden Hamblen, Phelani Maduwa, Miguel Parrilla, Evan Guzman).

Second Place – Evan Guzman (Mile); Hannah Burkhart (400m); Women’s 4x800m Relay “B Team” (Rebekah Howard, Julia Karsten, Genevieve Schwarz, Kiera Snyder)

Third Place – Abbey King (High Jump)

TRACK HIGHLIGHTS

• Lindsey Stallworth (Knoxville, Tenn.) continued dominating the mile on her home track as she registered her fifth career gold medal in the event – three of them coming inside the Dome. Stallworth’s time of 5:02.15 was nine seconds faster than her nearest competitor as Milligan’s Caitlin Dominy was second in 5:11.72. 
• Hannah Burkhart (Knoxville, Tenn.) finished second in the 400m, turning in a personal record time of 58.76. Burkhart, who shaved three seconds off her record, finished behind Wofford’s Jasmine Jefferson (58.54). 
• Stallworth and Burkhart weren’t done on the podium as they helped guide the Bucs’ 4x800m relay team to a gold medal with a time of 9:51.74. Burkhart opened the relay, followed by Alyssa Galvin (Denver, N.C.), Stallworth and ending with Makayla Shaw (Jonesborough, Tenn.). 
• The women’s 4x800m relay “B” team finished runner-up in 9:55.58. The squad featured Rebekah Howard (Ashland, Ky.), Julia Karsten (Old Hickory, Tenn.), Genevieve Schwarz (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) and Kiera Snyder (Clyde, Mich.). 
• The men’s 4x800m relay also won gold as Brayden Hamblen (Rock Hill, Ill.), Phelani Maduwa (Parys, Free State, South Africa), Miguel Parrilla (Knoxville, Tenn.), and Evan Guzman (Franklin, Tenn.) dominated the field with a time of 7:45.79, which was over 25 seconds faster than the second-place squad.   
• Guzman set a personal record in the mile as he posted a time of 4:11.79, which was six-hundredths of a second shy of winning the event. Lincoln Memorial’s Roberto Fajardo won with a time of 4:11.73. 
• Myles Stoots (Mobile, Ala.) set his fastest collegiate time in the mile as he was fourth in 4:14.21, five seconds faster than his 4:19.27 mark, set at last year’s Buccaneer Invitational. 
• Kennedi Johnson (Nashville, Tenn.) and Ant’wonike Jennings (Chattanooga, Tenn.) qualified for Saturday’s final in the women’s 60mH as they finished third and seventh, respectively. Jennings clocked in at 9.09 and Jennings won her heat with a time of 9.48. Saturday’s final is scheduled for 3:50 p.m. 
• In the women’s 60m, Mekayla Brown (Elgin, S.C.) and LaNaya Martin (Columbia, S.C.) both qualified for Saturday’s final. Brown turned in the fourth fastest mark in the prelims at 7.69 and Martin was sixth in 7.80. Saturday’s final is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

FIELD HIGHLIGHTS

• The Bucs captured two wins in the field events with Symphony Buxton (Knoxville, Tenn.) beginning the day with a gold-medal performance in the weight throw, while Jaclyn Wright (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) captured her first collegiate title in the high jump. 
• Buxton, who was competing for the first time in nearly two years, won her second career gold medal in the event with a heave of 18.25m. Overall, this marked Buxton’s fourth collegiate title.   
• Wright turned in a personal best in the jump to win gold by posting a leap of 1.60m. 
• Mary Brown (Radford, Va.) also enjoyed a personal best on Friday. The Radford, Va. native finished fourth in the weight throw with a mark of 14.90. Brown’s previous record was 14.58, set at the 2020 Buccaneer Track & Field Invitational. 
• In the men’s weight throw, Zachary Fejeran (Tazewell, Tenn.) registered a personal record in with a toss of 14.77m, pacing sixth overall. Fejeran’s previous mark was 14.43, set at last year’s Buccaneer Track and Field Invitational. 
• Tyrese Grant (Summerville, S.C.), a transfer from Newberry College, recorded a personal best in the triple jump with a mark of 12.75m, placing eighth overall. Grant’s mark came in his last legal jump of the day. 

COMMENTS FROM COACH WATTS

On the women…

The women's team had a very nice first day of the first meet of the indoor season. We competed in seven events and came away with a very impressive 10 personal bests and five podium finishes. In addition, we advanced four people to tomorrows finals. We had to hold out several key people due to sickness and a couple of injuries.  Not being full strength makes me cautiously optimistic of what we are capable of down road if we can get and stay healthy. 

The highlights included victories by Symphony Buxton, Jaclyn Wright, Lindsey Stallworth and the 4x800m Relay team.   

Symphony's performance comes after missing pretty much the last two years of competition with a very respectable performance in the weight throw. It’s a great start for Symphony.   

Jaclyn won a very competitive high jump, which came down to a jump off.  She cleared an ETSU personal best to win. It's always great to win, especially in a situation like that.   

Lindsey was steady as usual and looked very strong for an early season meet.   

I tried to put two evenly-matched teams together for the 4x800m relay, and it turned out to be close in the end. The team of Hannah Burkhart, Rebekah Howard, Lindsey Stallworth, and Makayla Shaw came out on top.   

Hannah Burkhart had a lifetime best in the 400m dash to finish second to go along with her winning leg on the 4x8.  

Other personal bests came from Britney Griffith in the high jump and 60m hurdles and Lindsay Cooper in the 60m dash.   

In addition, we qualified two each to the finals of the 60m and 60m hurdles, to be contested tomorrow. Leading the way in the hurdles was Kennedi Johnson with the third best qualifying time and freshman Ant'wonike Jennings advancing to a final in her first collegiate meet. In the 60m dash, veterans Mekayla Brown and Lanaya Martin ran solid early season marks to advance to a competitive final. 

I look forward to more exciting and competitive performances tomorrow from the team and am very happy with the start to the season. 

On the men

We are only able to compete about half of our team this weekend due to sickness and a couple of injuries.  Although our numbers are limited for this meet, we did come away with some good performances, which included a couple of podium finishes and several personal bests.   

The field event highlights included Noah Shelton and Zach Fejeran making the final in the weight throw finishing fifth and sixth.  Zach threw a personal best and Noah was just short of his. Tyrese Grant, a transfer from Newberry College finished in the top eight with a personal best in the triple jump.   

On the running event side, Evan Guzman went to the wire losing out by .06 finishing second in the mile run with a personal best, and Myles Stoots who set the pace for 3/4 of the race finished fourth and came through with a lifetime best as well.   

Miguel Parrilla ran an indoor best in the 400m dash and came back about an hour later to help the 4x800 team to victory with the fastest split of the quartet. The rest of the winning squad included Brayden Hamblen, Phelani Maduwa and Evan Guzman. 

We will have limited action tomorrow, but should see results in four or five events as we look to add to the highlights from today.      

UP NEXT

The second and final day of the meet gets underway Saturday at 8:35 a.m. with the women’s 3000m. The collegiate portion of the meet ends with the men’s 4x400m relay at 6:25 p.m. 

For more information on ETSU track and field, visit ETSUBucs.com.