Pirates Set Three School Records At Hokie Invitational

Friday, January 24

Blacksburg, Va.

TBA

East Carolina University

Hokie Invitational

January 25, 2020 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field, Track & Field

Full Meet Results

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Among a field of strong competition, the East Carolina track and field program more than held its own during the second weekend of its indoor season by setting three school records and a trio of top-12 NCAA marks at the Hokie Invitational inside Rector Fieldhouse on the campus of Virginia Tech.

"It was another exciting weekend for both teams," Director of Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Curt Kraft said. "It's been a long time since I can last remember where we had this many good performances this early in the indoor season. We set three schools records and had numerous lifetime bests for both the men and women. We have to enjoy this early-season success, but they also need to understand that we have a long way to go."

Junior Mackenzie Whitaker started off Friday's slate with a huge performance in the pentathlon, garnering a total of 3,834 points – a program record and the seventh-best mark in the nation currently. She won four of the five events to top the field by a comfortable 259 points.

Continuing a phenomenal start to her collegiate career, freshman Melicia Mouzzon recorded a school-record time of 7.30 in the finals to finish second behind unattached athlete Kayla White who crossed the finish line in 7.28. Mouzzon is currently tied with Chelsea Francis of SMU for the American Athletic Conference lead and owns the 12th-fastest time among women in Division I.

In the field, senior Ryan Davis broke the 16-year old weight throw program record with a toss of 21.78 meters to finish third in the event. He moved into the league lead and is all the way up to fourth nationally. Davis also produced the fourth-best indoor shot put total in the school annals with a mark of 17.45 meters.

Other standout performances included a lifetime best mark in the pole vault out of sophomore Mia Alamo-Worley who cleared 3.80 meters and moved into third place on the ECU top-10 indoor list. Senior Nuria Tillo-Prats also fared well in the 3,000-meter run, finishing second in a time of 9:52.21 which is the fifth fastest indoor showing in school history.

On the men's side, junior Blake Mathews moved into a tie for third on the Pirate indoor top-10 register in the 600-meter run by finishing the event in a time of 1:20.22 to take fourth place. He also secured the ninth-best high jump effort in school history with a mark of 2.00 meters. Freshman Royal Burris recorded the fourth-best 300-meter time in program history at 34.83. In the pole vault, freshman Jake Justice improved his mark from two weekends ago, posting a clearance of 4.67 meters for the sixth-highest attempt in school history.

East Carolina's next competition – the Carolina Challenge – is scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 1 in Columbia, S.C.

"The energy, enthusiasm and confidence need to be built upon for the upcoming meets," Kraft added. "Some of the performances we had this weekend were not only good for our conference but were also some of the best marks in the nation. Now we have to turn our attention to USC next weekend."