On Saturday, both the men’s and women’s track teams made their way to Birmingham, Ala., to compete in the Samford Invitational and Multi track meet.
There were several standout performances across the board. Senior Ewa Zaborowska placed first out of 55 runners in the 3,000-meter race. Her time of 9:23.01 broke Harding’s record for the event.
Zaborowska defeated Middle Tennessee State sophomore Hannah Maina by 25 seconds for the win. She was named the DII National Athlete of the Week.
Several other Harding athletes placed in this event, including junior Kelsey Taylor placing 14th and sophomore Amber Webb placing 18th.
The men’s track team had an equally outstanding performance. For the first time in his career, sophomore Trey Adkison won the pole vault title over 22 other competitors. Adkison cleared 15 feet, 5 inches setting a personal record.
The 4×400-meter relay team placed second out of 16 other teams with a time of 3:19.33. The team, consisting of junior Kevin Naceanceno, junior Trevor Holloway, freshman Jared Parker and senior Dillon Bagwell, ran the third-fastest time in Harding’s NCAA era.
Junior Corey Bassett qualified for the finals in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.90 seconds. He placed eighth in the finals with a time of 6.97 seconds.
Bassett hit his stride in the 60-meter dash. His time of 6.87 seconds at the Missouri Southern meet secured him a third place spot and broke the previous Harding record.
“I feel really good about Saturday’s meet,” Bassett said. “We all knew what we needed to do, and when it came down to we got the job done. There was a lot of good competition there so it really pushed us to work harder.”
Senior Bailey Pearson did not compete in the meet Saturday, but has particular reason to be proud of the season. One year after getting in a serious car wreck, Pearson was able to compete in the high jump for the first time several weekends ago. She has high expectations for the team this year.
“For myself, I want to reach the goals I have set.” Pearson said. “For the team, I expect hard work and the drive to succeed this year. This team can accomplish great things if they work hard. It should be a good season.”
The Bisons have had a successful season thus far. Taylor, who competed in several events Saturday, put things into perspective.
“We are in a tough conference, but we have a good opportunity to show up and surprise other schools with the talent we have on our team,” Taylor said.
