Track And Field Finishes Final Tune Up For AAC Indoor Championships

Friday, February 10

Lynchburg, VA

All Day

East Carolina University

Liberty Invitational

Track And Field Finishes Final Tune Up For AAC Indoor Championships

February 11, 2017 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field, Track & Field

Full Meet Results

Full Meet Results

LYNCHBURG, Va. – In its final meet before the American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships, the East Carolina track and field program traveled to Lynchburg, Va., for the Liberty Invitational and captured a number of top-three finishes. The event was held in the newly-constructed Liberty Indoor Track Complex.

"Overall it was a pretty good weekend," Director of Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Curt Kraft said. "We had numerous personal bests and we also had numerous athletes move up on our all time top 10 list. We also made some improvements on our American Athletic Conference list. In our sport every time you leave a Track and Field meet there's always a lot of mixed emotions. We have 17 events in our sport, and you always have athletes that have mixed emotions on their performances. We are in a sport that every weekend that we compete, athletes want to achieve personal bests."

On the men's side, senior Pol Solanellas captured first place in the 1,000-meter run, clocking the second-fastest time in program history at 2:26.66. Sophomore Nick Ciaccia also won an event title, turning in a time of 14:38.23 in the 5,000-meter run to win the race by a full 23 seconds. It is also the second-fastest time ever run by a Pirate in the discipline.

In the throws, sophomore Ryan Davis and senior Adam Manns took first and second in the weight throw with respective marks of 18.36 meters and 17.77 meters. Manns also notched a third-place result in the shot put, checking in at 17.37 meters – a new personal best and the second-furthest toss in school history.

As for the women, Courtney Warner placed third in both the 60 and 200-meter dash events with times of 7.59 and 24.50. Sophomore Grace Sullivan moved into eighth place on the 3,000-meter ECU top 10 list by crossing the finish line in 10:05.00, good for a fifth-place showing.

Mohogany Baker represented the Pirates well in the throws, placing second in the weight throw (19.01m) and fourth in the shot put (13.85m).

East Carolina will take the next two weeks to prepare for the AAC Indoor Championships. The meet is scheduled for Feb. 24-25 in Birmingham, Ala., at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

"The meet during which we want everything to come together is the league championships," Kraft added. "We need to get back to work, get healthy and stay focused."