Carolinian Staff 

Image courtesy of Denise Archetto/UNCG Athletics 

The UNCG track teams visited Liberty University last weekend for the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational. The two-day indoor meet brought more personal bests for UNCG runners, including one win and several top-ten finishes.   

First-year team member Samuel Barnard ran a personal best of 1:55.60 in the 800-meter open, his personal best time and one good enough to earn first place out of 19 competitors. The next highest finish for a UNCG runner was sophomore Vicky Sosa’s fifth place in the 3,000 meters with an impressive 10:08.32. It was Sosa’s fourth personal best of the indoor season in that event.   

Junior Andrew Hamilton competed in the 800-meter invite, and his personal best of 1:54.19 brought him across the line in 20th place. UNCG milers Khalid Abdullahi and Lane Prochaska finished 23rd and 28th, respectively, both breaking the 4:30 barrier. More Spartan distance runners set personal bests, with Ethan Long and Evan Pena clocking the fastest times of their UNCG careers. Long finished eighth, crossing the finish in 14:55.84, with Pena not far behind in 13th with a time of 15:12.00.   

The track teams travel to Winston-Salem next weekend for the JDL Last Chance Invitational before beginning their postseason. The Southern Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships begin on Feb. 24 in Lexington, Virginia, followed by the NCAA Division I championships on Mar. 8-9 in Boston, Massachusetts. The teams will then have just under two weeks off from competition before beginning the outdoor season on Mar. 22 at the Phoenix Invitational at Elon University.