Led by top Zimbabwean female sprinter Vimbayi Maisvorewa, the Auburn track and field team continued its impressive indoor campaign, competing at the Bob Pollock Invitational in Clemson, South Carolina, at the Clemson University Indoor Track last Friday and Saturday.
Maisvorewa, who is on an athletics scholarship at Auburn University, ran in her favourite 400m event and came second in 52.21 seconds, according to reports from South Carolina.
Racing in the 400m for the sprinters, senior Maisvorewa and sophomore Deborah Oke finished second and fourth in the event.
Maisvorewa’s time of 52.21 placed her at No. 5 in the conference, while Oke’s is No. 12 (53.44).
The duo also raced in the 200m, where Maisvorewa ran an indoor collegiate best time of 23.97 and OKe crossed not far behind in 24.00.
This helped the Tigers to take home gold in four different events and had 12 collegiate personal best performances over the weekend.
Junior Alyssa Quinones-Mixon highlighted the showing of the pole vaulters for the women. Quinones-Mixon finished the event first overall with a collegiate best mark of 4.38m. Her new mark placed her second in the SEC.
Senior Maura Huwalt continued to show her dominance in the throwing events for the women.
For the third time in three weeks, she finished weight throw first overall with a new PR of 22.27m.
Also competing in the weight throw, senior Adrienne Adams had a stellar performance. She placed second overall (20.00 m) and moved up to fifth on Auburn’s top 10 in history.
Auburn swept the men’s and women’s shot putt titles with the help of juniors Matthew Rueff and Megan Hague. Rueff claimed his best mark on the fourth throw of the event (18.18m).
On the women’s side, the Tigers took the top three spots in the event. Hague claimed gold (16.41m), Huwalt took silver with a season’s best toss (16.31m) and sophomore Marley Raikiwasa placed third (15.78,).
Senior Kyle Brown, junior John Leonard and senior Kyle Moison went second (21.84m), third (20.56m) and fourth (20.28m), respectively, in weight throw for the men. Junior Seth Allen took ninth with a PR throw of 18.94m.
Senior Chante Clinkscale continues to sign her name in the Auburn record books. Clinkscale delivered two PRs in the 60m dash.
She ran a time of 7.26 in the preliminary round of the event and delivered a PR. She improved her time in the semis, where she won the round (7.23).
Her time placed her ninth in Auburn’s record book. In the 200m, her indoor PR time of 23.49 was good enough for fourth place. Sophomore Shonedra Richardson joined Clinkscale in the 200m.
The Linden, Alabama native also earned a collegiate best in the preliminary round of the race (7.58).
Auburn’s sprints squad continues to blow through the competition.
This weekend the trio of juniors Azeem Fahmi and Ian Myers and senior Dario Matatu competed in the 60m dash.
In prelims, Fahmi ran 6.70 with the second fastest time of the round. Myers wasn’t far behind, crossing in 6.71, and Matuau ran 6.74. All three advanced in the semifinals round. In the next round, all three Tigers had season-best times. Fahmi took silver (6.65), Myers finished in fourth (6.69) and Matau claimed seventh (6.73).
Matau finished fourth in the 200m (20.97), and Myers grabbed a collegiate-best time (21.07).
In the field events, senior Rhiannon Held and sophomore Brooke Walden also had solid performances in the pole vault.
Held took fourth with a mark of 3.93m and Walden finished in sixth with a season’s best clearance of 3.93m.
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Competing in his second meet for Auburn, freshman Asande Mthembu leapt out to 7.42m to take bronze in long jump.
Coming off solid performances last week, the distance crew continued to put up solid times. In the women’s mile, junior Hallie Porterfield finished the event ninth, crossing the line in 4:52.93. Fresh-man Mary Malone’s time of 5:10.84 earned her a new PR.
Junior Hannah Thuss delivered a season’s best time in the 3000m (10:09.70).
Running in the 3000m for the men, junior Hayden Judge picked up a new PR (8:18.00), good for tenth place. In the men’s 5000m, two Tigers finished in the top five. Senior Fuji Anday finished in second place (14:58.80), and junior Joseph Perry rounded out the top five with a time of (15:19.52).
The Tigers will head to Bryan-College Station, Texas, to compete at the Charlie Thomas Invitational on February 7-8 at the R.A. “Murray” Fasken ’38 Indoor Track & Field Facility.
