Pirates Win Two Events At Carolina Challenge

Friday, January 21

Columbia, S.C.

All Day

East Carolina University

Carolina Challenge

January 22, 2022 | Track & Field

Full Results (PDF)

COLUMBIA, S.C. – East Carolina opened its indoor track season in solid fashion at the Carolina Challenge this weekend on the campus of the University of South Carolina.

"I thought both teams competed very well for the first meet of the season all things considered," Director of Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Curt Kraft said. "We definitely had some highlights with Sommer Knight winning the pole vault and Brooke Stith taking the triple jump. Both teams were very thankful to just be competing again."

Knight, who finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the pole vault last spring, tied her own indoor program record mark of 4.15 meters to defeat Power 5 foes from Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Auburn and South Carolina. Stith posted a triple jump mark of 12.71 meters to edge Jamie Robinson of Ohio State who put up a total of 12.69 meters. Stith also advanced to the finals of the 60-meter hurdles where she finished in sixth place in a time of 8.61 and claimed sixth in the invite section of the long jump by producing a mark of 5.60 meters.

On the men's side, Royal Burris won his heat in the 60-meter dash on the way to a fourth-place result in the finals where we crossed the finish line in a personal-best 6.79.

The Pirates fared quite well in the 5,000-meter run as Matthew Russell, Chase Osborne and Ethan Hageman ended up second, third and fourth with respective times of 14:51.03, 14:57.27 and 15:00.03.

"The goal moving forward is to continue to make progress from one week to the next," Kraft added. "If we can continue to improve and establish some consistency week in and week out, the results should all come together in the end. Hopefully we can catch a break in the weather, have some good practice sessions this week and get ready to go back to USC next weekend and build on the momentum."

Up Next: ECU returns to the Carolina Indoor Track and Field Complex next weekend for the South Carolina Invitational.