The men’s and women’s track and field teams turned in quite the performance at last weeks University of Central Arkansas (UCA) Open on Saturday, April 18. The men posted 18 top-five finishes and the women followed that with 13 of their own top-10 finishes.
“As a whole, the track team has slowly progressed and continued to stay well-rounded throughout the multiple events,” junior Josh Syrotchen said.
Syrotchen, who is the top-ranked discus thrower in DII, performed well in the UCA Open leading all Harding athletes by finishing top-10 in discus, shot put and the hammer throw.
In the discus throw Syrotchen finished second with a mark of 171 feet, 10 inches, fourth in the hammer throw at 144 feet, 5 inches and seventh in the shot put event with a throw of 42 feet, 9-3/4 inches.
“My teammates and I were able to finish with top level times and distances from the hard work everyday and keeping our focus on our goals,” Syrotchen said. “Pushing ourselves to a new level every week and sometimes everyday gives us the ability to reach great outcomes.”
Syrotchen said staying humble through his successes and his failures have helped him stay focused and determined to continue competing at a high level.
Other top finishers for the men’s team were the 4×400-meter relay team who finished second with the 10th fastest time in DII this season, fourth place in the 100-meter, fifth place in 1,500-meter, fourth and fifth place finishes in the 5,000-meter, fourth in the 110-meter hurdles, three top five finishes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, a third place finish in pole vault and a fourth place finish in the triple jump.
The women’s team showed their talent as well with 13 top-10 finishes at the UCA Open. Junior Sarah Coleman finished sixth in the high jump with a personal best 5 feet, 1 inch and fifth as a part of the 4×400 relay team with a time of 4 minutes, 2.30 seconds.
“For our 4×4 we haven’t had our normal relay from years past with women graduating, so we have had to have girls step it up and run the relay who haven’t before,” Coleman said. “Individually I was excited as well. I had two PR’s in the high jump and 100 hurdles. Since both of those events are in the heptathlon, that will be extremely helpful at conference.”
Coleman said a lot of their success as a team this season has been due to great coaching from Brian Phillips. She said it also comes down to focusing and being committed on hard work and willingness to sacrifice for the team.
Junior Kelsey Taylor won the 1,500-meter with a time of 4 minutes, 47.28 seconds and freshmen Sylvie Mueller won the 5,000-meter.
The men’s and women’s last track meet of the season is the Lone Star Conference Championship at Legrand Stadium in San Angelo, Texas on May 7-9.
