On Saturday April 6, he track and field team hosted the Bison Invitational. Along with Harding, eight other schools attended the event. The Harding team was successful at the invitational with the men winning six events and breaking one school record. The women won seven events, recorded five NCAA Division II personal times and broke three school records.
Three Harding athletes won individual running events. Junior Andrew Evans ran the 1,500 meters in 4:06.37, the fastest time of the Harding season. Sophomore Lajos Farkas won his first career event in the 5,000 in 15:39.70. With a time of 1:55:87, sophomore Jacek Dybowski won the 800 for his first career event victory.
“We have been working harder,” Dybowski said. “We have great coaches that give us good workouts and we all want to show better performances and score points for Harding. Another motivation for us to do even better is to join the Lone Star Conference. And after the conference, the best of us who qualify to the nationals will go to Colorado to compete with the best athletes in the nation for the Division II event.”
Senior Portia Bell, sophomore Ewa Zaborowska and sophomore Dallis Bailey won respectively the 200 meters in 23.90, the 800 meters in 2:10.94and the 1,500 meters in 4:49.30.
The women won the 4×400 relay with freshmanLydia Gordon, sophomore Shana Holmes,junior Kristen Celsorand Portia Bell running the fastest time of the season in 3:51.35.
According to Rachel Domeyer, red shirt freshman in the javelin, the success of the team came from a combination of factors.
“Competing in a home meet, we had our friends and families come out to support us,” Domeyer said. “The energetic atmosphere, the beautiful weather and pushing ourselves through the semester helped us overall in our success.”
Other victories came from Celsor, who won the high jump with 5 feet, 8 inches; seniorTiffany Chambers,who won the pole vault and broke her own school record clearing 12 feet, 6 inches; Gordon, who won the triple jump with 32-10.25. For the men, freshman Eric Rapp broke his own school record with a mark of 131 feet, 1 inch; sophomore Ryan Cagle won the straight shot put with a personal best throw of 47-04.25; and junior Kyle Kinser won the discus with a throw of 147 feer in his first career victory.
The track and field will perform again Saturday April 13 at the University of Mississippi.
