Pirate Women Fifth, Men Ninth at American Outdoor Championships

Friday, May 10

San Antonio, Texas

East Carolina University

American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships

Photo by: Cole Barnhill

Pirate Women Fifth, Men Ninth at American Outdoor Championships

May 12, 2024 | Track & Field

Results (Web)Men's Results (PDF)Women's Results (PDF)Photo Gallery

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Two athletes earned conference titles and the Pirates placed on the podium in two other events as the East Carolina track & field program concluded the 2024 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships on Sunday at UTSA's Park West Athletic Complex. The men's team took ninth with 28 points while the women posted a solid fifth-place finish with 67 points on the weekend.

Rebekah Bergquist kicked off the final day with a championship effort in the women's discus. After multiple top-five finishes and one previous All-Conference result, Bergquist broke through with her winning throw of 50.44m coming on just her second toss of the day. The result held and the senior became the first Pirate atop the podium on the weekend.

It would not be long before Bergquist was joined at the top as Sydni McMillan ran away from the field, and in doing so shattered her own program record, taking the 100m hurdles title in 13.06 seconds. McMillan won the event by a whopping .13 seconds and in the process she broke the Park West facility record.

McMillan earned more All-Conference honors on Sunday as a member of the women's 4x100m team along with Melicia Mouzzon, Rosalynd Hollingsworth and Calandra Henry. That quartet combined for a second-place finish to earn silver medals, all while demolishing the ECU record in the event, shaving .20 seconds off of the previous benchmark in a time of 44.18 seconds.

McMillan was not the only member of the 4x100m squad who doubled up for All-Conference honors as Mouzzon ran her way to a season-best 11.30-second 100m and a second-place finish in the event. Mouzzon's silver medal gave her two for the meet and now four for the calendar year after being on the podium twice indoors.

As a team, the women saw a marked improvement from their 10^th-place finish just a season ago and were in chase of finishing even higher as the third- through seventh-place teams were separated by just 10 points.

On the men's side, Royal Burris and Starrett Vesper were the stars of the day. Burris earned a pair of fourth-place finishes, tantalizingly missing the podium but earning 10 points for the team as he posted times of 10.40 seconds in the 100m and 20.73 seconds in the 200m. For Vesper, it was another excellent effort, this time in the pole vault where he finished fourth with a clearance of 4.90m.

Team Scores
Women
1. Charlotte – 142
2. Rice – 122
3. South Florida – 76
4. Wichita State – 69
5. East Carolina – 67
5. SMU – 67
7. Memphis – 66
8. Tulsa – 58
9. North Texas – 48
10. UTSA – 39.5
11. Tulane – 26
12. Florida Atlantic – 15
13. Temple – 13
14. UAB – 9.5

Men
1. South Florida – 217
2. Charlotte – 143
3. Rice – 105
4. Wichita State – 90
5. UTSA – 81
6. Memphis – 52
7. Tulsa – 35
8. North Texas – 34
9. East Carolina – 28
10. Tulane – 27

Up Next
The Pirates will await the finalization of the top marks to see which athletes earn their way into the NCAA East Preliminary meet.