WASHINGTON – The indoor track team is heading back to Virginia to compete at the Liberty Open in Lynchburg on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 7-8). American will send 40 athletes to compete in events ranging from the 60 meters to the 5k, with the 60 meter prelims opening the meet at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. The 200 meters, 1,000 meters, and 5,000 meters will also be contested on Friday evening, with the remaining events on Saturday, beginning with the mile at 9:30 a.m.
MEET INFORMATION
The Eagles spent their first two meets rewriting the record books. At the NYC Gotham Cup (Jan. 17), sophomore
Lorelei Bangit broke the school record in the 200 meters, running 25.42. At last weekend's Patriot Games (Feb. 1), freshman
Tamara Dorval ran a school record 7.80 seconds in the prelims of the 60 meters; sophomore
Ciera Thacker followed that with a personal best of 7.84, also under the previous record. To close out the day, the women's 4x400 squad of Bangit, freshman
Zoe Clark, senior
Lucia Ianello, and freshman
Lara Gin smashed the previous school record, running 3:56.03 to win the event. In total, the Eagles have set 18 new top-10 times and almost 50 personal bests in their first two meets of the season.
At Liberty, many athletes will be repeating events they ran in Staten Island or Fairfax, aiming to further improve their performances. Almost every sprint athlete will run multiple events. New record holder Dorval will toe the line again in the 60 meters, along with Thacker and freshman
Darcy Scheiner, who improved her top-10 all-time mark at the Patriot Games. Three members of the school-record 4x400 squad — Bangit, Clark, and Gin, along with sophomore
Adeline DiPaolo — will run the open 400 meters this weekend. Freshman
Brandon Williams, who ran the second-best time in AU history in the 200 on Jan. 17, will race the event again on Friday, as well as the 60 and 400 meters. AU record-holder
Malcolm Lewis will toe the line in the 400 to open his indoor season.
In the mid-distance events, seniors
Lucia Ianello and
Kirah Tianga, who improved their personal best times in the 800 at George Mason, will go up in distance to the 1,000 meters on Friday.
Grace Kirk, who is seventh all-time in the 1,000 meters, will attempt to improve her time in the event this weekend. On the men's side, juniors
Kaden Kluth and
Carver Morgan will compete in their primary event, the 800 meters, on Saturday. They own the top two times on AU's top-10 list. Freshman
Noah Smith, who won the Patriot Games 3k in a massive PR of 8:28.42, will go down to the mile this weekend.
On the distance side, several women who have competed in the 3,000 meters so far this season will toe the line again in hopes of improving their times on Saturday. Most of the men's distance squad is entered in the 5k on Friday, including freshman
Jaden Frederick, who also PRed in the 3k at George Mason last week.
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