Track and Field | 12/1/2018 6:47:00 PM

SALEM, Va.  Methodist's track & field teams opened the indoor portion of their 2018-19 meet schedule on Friday and Saturday at the third annual Bast-Cregger Invite, hosted by Roanoke College in the Kerr-Cregger Fieldhouse.

The two-day meet schedule began Friday night with a few of the distance events, the pole vault and high jumps.

Saturday's full event schedule began at 11 a.m. and included the remainder of the jumps and distance races, as well as the throw events, hurdles and sprints, and middle distance races.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The season kicked off strongly for the Monarchs as the quartet of Stephen Dukes, Kenny Schild, Jeremy Prichard and Connor Ayers raced to a first-place time of 11 minutes, 15.20 seconds in the men's 4,000-meter distance medley relay on Friday evening.
• Dukes would enjoy a solid Saturday schedule, finishing second in the 600-meter dash with a time of 1:27.58, and fourth in the 1,000-meter run (2:43.73).
• The 1,000 was one of the highest scoring events for the Monarchs:
  • Makayla Lawler challenged for the win and finished second, with a time of 3:16.44
  • Helping Dukes populate the top 10 with Methodist colors were Ayers (6th, 2:46.60), Schild (2:55.40), Nathan Zauner (10th, 2:55.97), as well as Jonathan Wertz (2:57.52) who was 11th
• Lawler added another second-place finish to her day later in the meet, again challenging for the win before ending in the runner-up spot in the women's mile with a time of 5:37.38.
• Ayers had a top-10 showing in the men's mile, crossing the finish in 4:48.29 for 7th place.
• Another Monarch who added a second place to the team's haul was Prichard. The nearly pulled off the victory with his runner-up time of 50.96 seconds, falling just short of the winner by 66/100ths of a second.
• Kimeesha Whitlock did double duty on Saturday, competing in both the triple jump and women's 60-meter dash. She finished sixth in the triple with a best leap of 10.34 meters (33 feet, 11 ¼ inches), and was eighth in the dash with a final's heat time of 8.30 seconds. Her fastest time in the 60 came in the semifinal round where she posted a time of 8.28 seconds.
• Just ahead of Whitlock in the 60 was Jimlyn Laurent, who finished fourth. Laurent lit up the track in the preliminary round with a time of 8.15 seconds. She earned her way into the championship heat with a time of 8.21 in the semis before posting her fourth-fastest time of 8.17 seconds in the final's heat.
• Jalen Anderson popped out top-15 throws in two events Saturday. His toss of 11.13m (36-6 ¼) in the 35-pound weight throw was the eighth farthest, and he finished 13th in the men's shot put (16 lbs.) with a best throw of 11.42m (37-5 ¼).
• Deasha Frisby was ninth in the women's shot (8.8 lbs.) with a throw of 10.49m (34-5).

NEXT UP
Methodist's men and women will compete in the College Kick-off in Winston-Salem, N.C., on January 13, 2019.