LYNCHBURG, Virginia – With only seven athletes competing this weekend, the North Carolina A&T men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams still managed to walk away from the Liberty Elite Invitational with five wins and two new facility records.
Raking in most of the accolades for the teams were senior Chris Belcher and junior India Brown. Both Belcher and Brown championed their respective 60-meter and 200-meter races and each athlete also set a new facility record on the day.
Belcher won the men’s 200m with a sprint of 21.43. He also qualified first in the men’s 60m prelims with a time of 6.73 before finishing first in the finals in 6.72. Belcher’s time of 6.72 in the 60m finals became the new facility record as it debunked a time of 6.76 from Daniel Estrada— a non-collegiate athlete with the Platinum Sports Academy Club.
Brown secured her win in the women’s 60m after qualifying second in the prelims in 7.58 and then sprinting 7.57 in the finals. But it was Brown’s first-place 24.15 sprint in the women’s 200m that set a facility record. Before Brown, Ty-Leah Hampton of Winston-Salem State held the record at 24.77.
In addition to Belcher and Brown, junior TeQuille Jackson similarly found himself victorious. Jackson championed the men’s 60 hurdles in 8.11. The Aggies also used the Liberty Elite Invitational to secure some qualifying times before the Mid-Eastern Athletics Conference (MEAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships, Feb. 16-18 in Landover, Md. Sophomores Yakira Love and Justin Hamilton had yet to debut in their respective individual events – the 200m and 400m – prior to running in Lynchburg, Va. However, both athletes are now top-10 on the MEAC indoor performance list.
Love’s debut of 24.48 in the women’s 200m garnered her a second-place and positioned her No. 4 in the MEAC. Hamilton, on the other hand, used a debut run of 48.68 in the men’s 400m to take fourth and rank No. 7 in the MEAC. “We came here because I didn’t want to go too far before conference,” said the director of track and field programs Duane Ross. “We were supposed to go to the Tyson Invite in Arkansas, but I think this meet served its purpose. We got a couple races in to stay sharp and now we’re back on track.”
Liberty Elite Invitational - Feb. 10-11, 2017 (Liberty Indoor Track Complex)
Complete Results
NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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