In her second collegiate race, freshman Chantelle Vernon broke the ETSU women’s 55m record with a time of 6.90 seconds at the Second Appalachian Indoor Meet last weekend.
The previous record was a 7.12 held by Beverly Dalton set in 1992. At the same time, Vernon also set the track record at Appalachian State, which was a 6.98 held by Michelle Dixon of UNC-Charlotte set in 2001.
In this race, Vernon beat two All-Americans and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor National Championships. This comes a week after Vernon broke the school 60m record in her first race as a Buc at the West Virginia University Classic.
In the women’s 200m dash, senior Jennifer Howard was the first Buc to cross the finish line in 25:63 to take third place. Natasha Peyton finished in 26.14 to finish in 10th place.
Two freshmen also finished back-to-back in the 200m. Nichola Cornish and Ashley Taylor finished 15th (26.44) and 16th (26.45) respectively while another freshman, Carla Akers, ran a 28.19 to finish in 26th place.
In the 5000m run, sophomore Emily Chaney ran a 19:54.43 to finish in sixth place.
Freshman Jennifer Habbestad finished in 22:01.87 to earn 13th place.
On the men’s side the Bucs’ top placing came from the distance medley relay team of James Grufferty, David Haefner, Jon Shaw and Bradley Yewer, which finished in third place with a time of 10:37.00
Kaylin Chesney placed 14th in the 200m dash with a time of 23.33, which beats his previous best of 23.60 seconds. Senior Mike Farkas finished the 5000m run in 16:49.55 to take ninth place. Farkas’ previous best in the 5000m was 16:52.22.
In the high jump, sophomore Rhett Ezzell finished fifth after jumping 6′ 2″ while junior Adam Woods took ninth place, jumping 5′ 10″.
Members of the men’s and women’s track teams will next compete in the Blue Heaven Rumble in North Carolina.

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