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Results

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In the final competition before the 2015 NCCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships, the Lee University track teams tallied five more qualifiers through their performances at the Buccaneer Invitational hosted by East Tennessee State University. In addition, there were five personal bests along with two new school records achieved in the two-day event.

"This was a great weekend for us," said head coach Caleb Morgan. "We had a lot of personal bests and picked up a few NCCAA qualifiers we were in need of. This was a big weekend for our women's team as a whole. Everyone dropped time in their events."

The NCCAA Indoor Championship will be held the weekend of Feb. 20-21 at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.

Matt Jenkins, Jessica Childers, Terris Elliott and the men's and women's 4x400 meter relay teams surpassed the qualifying marks. Jenkins finished the 5000 meter run in 16:12.09 (22^nd), Childers was 13^th with a personal record time of 2:22.91 in the 800 meter run and Elliott recorded a time of 4:29.32 in the 1 mile run.

"Elliott ran his first race since coming back from injury and had a very strong showing in the mile, hitting an NCCAA qualifier," added Morgan.

The women's 4x400 meter relay team of Adrian Martin, Emily Bryan, Madison Riddle and Childers placed 15^th with a time of 4:14.09. Emmanuel Kipchumba, Adam Gullette, Harold Smith and Justin Knuth not only qualified for nationals with a mark of 3:26.99, they also set the Lee University record for the event.

Kipchumba added a fourth-place finish in the 800 meter run. His time of 1:52.56 was the second-fastest time among collegiate athletes in the race and gave him the fastest time recorded in the event for a Lee athlete.

"Kipchumba ran a gutsy race in the 800 meter and was not intimidated by his competition, which consisted of two professional athletes," said Morgan. "His time puts him at No. 14 in (NCAA) Division II this year and No. 1 in the South Region."

Smith improved upon his qualifying time in the 1 mile run and set a personal best with a time of 4:20.61. Seth Eagleson finished sixth with a personal-best 8:45.45 in the 3000 meter run.

"With Eagleson and Smith both running personal bests in their events, I'm excited to see what these two freshmen are going to do when we head to the NCCAAs with another two weeks of training," said Morgan.

Elizabeth Sillcocks led four Lady Flames in the 5000 meter run. Sillcocks was seventh with a personal record of 18:26.92. Audrey Smith was 25^th (19:35.23), Lauren Hart finished 32^nd (19:50.94) and Rachel Riel crossed the finish line at 20:46.56 (44^th).

"Sillcocks had a great performance in the 5k. She dropped 22 seconds off of her personal best," added Morgan.

Adrian Martin had a personal record (25.63) in the 200 meter dash. Moneque Beckford and Kaitlynn Kincer joined Martin in the 200 meter race and recorded times of 26.47 and 30.22, respectively.

Beckford also ran in the 400 meter dash and placed 10^th (58.92). Martin posted a time of 7.86 in the preliminaries of the 60 meter dash before finishing 15^th in the semifinal round with a mark of 7.88.

Hunter Goforth ran in the 60 meter dash and had a time of 7.54. Nick Eckert (4:35.98) and Alex Carter (4:45.77) participated in the men's 1 mile run. Joseph Crook added a time of 15:42.62 in the 5000 meter run.

Riddle was 31^st in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:33.09. Brianna Prugh and Emily Bryan were placed into the seeded race of the 800 meter run. Prugh finished 20^th (2:27.74) and Bryan was 22^nd (2:30.16).

Gullette tallied a mark of 2:00.08 in the seeded 800 meter run for 14^th place. Justin Knuth ran the 1 mile seeded race in 4:44.14 (24^th).

Danielle King joined Smith in the women's 1 mile run. Smith was 19^th with a time of 5:35.84, while King was 52^nd (6:19.91). Childers finished seventh (5:15.27) in the seeded 1 mile run.

"Childers didn't have quite the race we wanted in the mile, but she kept herself within striking distance of the leaders through 1200 meters," added Morgan.

Three Lee athletes took on the long jump. Kincer finished 49^th with a distance of 4.27 meters. Goforth recorded a jump of 6.23 meters on his first attempt before improving to 6.51 meters (20^th) on his final attempt. Rick Barry placed 26^th with a jump of 6.24 meters.