ETSU’s men and women’s track and field teams competed in the Southern Conference Championship with exceptional outcomes on the weekend of Feb. 25-26 in Lexington, Virginia. 

Head Coach George Watts said one word describes the wrap-up of the season: progress. And that is what the teams have seen and produced. 

Saturday’s events finished strong with three individuals and two race teams medaling in events. 

Freshman Logan Wagner earned third place in shot put with a distance of 14.29m, a personal best for him. 

The women’s distance medley relay team placed third with a time of 12:03.93. Runners included senior Jessica Lord (Morristown, Tennessee), junior Hannah Burkhart (Knoxville, Tennessee), junior Julia Karsten (Old Hickory, Tennessee) and junior Rebekah Howard (Ashland, Kentucky). 

Sophomore Kiera Snyder (Clyde, Michigan) ran a personal best in the 3000m with a time of 9:34.01, earning her second place. 

Senior Brayden Hamblen (Rock Falls, Illinois) placed second in the 3000m with a time of 8:24.08. 

The men’s distance medley relay also placed second on Saturday with a time of 10:02.88, featuring senior Phelani Maduwa (Parys, Free State, South Africa), freshman Conner Overly (Maryville, Tennessee), junior Miguel Parrilla (Knoxville, Tennessee) and junior Myles Stoots (Mobile, Alabama). 

“At our team meeting before we left, I told the team I wanted a hero in every event and that was the theme for the meet. A lot of people really rose to the occasion and did really well. I was very pleased,” said Watts. 

Sunday’s final events resulted in more wins for the Buccaneers. 

Both the men’s and women’s 800m races landed representation for ETSU on the leaderboard. Parrilla placed second with a time of 1:50.52 for the men, and Lord placed second with a time of 2:08.87 for the women. 

Storming the podium in the men’s mile race, junior Josh Krafsur (Fort Collins, Colorado) came in second with a time of 4:08.27, followed closely by teammate junior Evan Guzman (Franklin, Tennessee) who came in third with a time of 4:08.92. 

Hamblen won his second top-three finish of the meet, earning third place for his performance in the 5000m with a time of 14:22.30. 

Sophomore Malachi Thomas (Chilhowie, Virginia) placed second in the high jump with a mark of 2 meters. 

The women’s 4×400 relay race finished in third place with runners Lord, Burkhart, Karsten and freshman McKenna Boykin (Powder Springs, Georgia) with a time of 3:52.80. 

“This is my eleventh year here at ETSU, and this might be the best team effort and team performance we’ve had with the team comradery and the effort itself,” said Coach Watts. 

ETSU had three individuals earn a gold medal on Sunday. 

Sophomore Tya Blake (Lynchburg, Virginia) earned her gold medal in the Triple Jump with a distance of 11.68m. 

Maduwa placed first in the 800m with a time of 1:50.12. 

Senior Genevieve Schwarz (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) won gold in the mile with a time of 4:46.22. This was the third year in a row that Schwarz has earned this title at the SoCon Championships. 

“It’s been a different experience every year. I think the races have all gone a little differently, but I’ve been able to approach it with a similar strategy of hanging back and kicking the way that I like to. I was happy to have felt the strongest that I’ve felt this past year. It was fun to run it pretty comfortably,” commented Schwarz. 

Overall, for individual event wins, ETSU secured five third-place wins, seven second-place wins and three first-place wins. As a team, both men’s and women’s placed third at the end of the SoCon Championships. 

ETSU track and field member during championship race. (Contributed/ETSU Athletics)

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