Hilltoppers Run Strong at Kent State Meet
KENT, Ohio – Several more school records fell by the wayside this weekend as the West Liberty men’s and women’s track teams tuned up for next week’s Mountain East Conference Indoor Championships with a strong showing at the Doug Raymond National Qualifying Meet , hosted by Kent State University.
Hannah Kemp, Hailey Carreon and Mikhi Anderson all set school records while several of their teammates established themselves as forces to be reckoned with on the conference stage by posting marks ranked among the top five in the MEC this spring.
Kemp, the Hilltoppers’ two-time All-Region distance ace, knocked nearly 10 seconds off her own school record in the indoor mile with a time of 5:10.96. That’s the fourth-fastest indoor mile by an MEC woman this spring.
Carreon also broke a record she already held, flashing across the finish line in the 200-meter sprint with a time of 26.64 seconds – among the MEC’s Top 10 this spring.
Anderson hurdled his way into the WLU record book with an 8.33 clocking in the 60-meter hurdles. That shaved a full tenth of a second off the previous mark set by Jeff Oberdick two years ago and is the third-fastest time in the conference this season.
West Liberty’s men’s and women’s 4x400 relay squads posted top five times at the weekend meet. The women’s time of 4:21.81 is 5th in the conference while the men’s 3:31.32 is No. 4 to date.
Aubree Story cleared 5-1 (1.55m) in the high jump, third-best in the MEC this spring, while Olivia Combs’ pole vault of 9 feet, 11.75 inches is No. 4 in the league. That gives the Hilltoppers three of the top five spots in the event with Olivia Miller 3rd at 10-0 and Mackenzie Rine 5th (9 feet, 6.25 inches).
On the men’s side, freshman Reese Burnside cleared 14-9 (4.50m) in the pole vault, good for No. 2 in the MEC this spring. Veteran Danah Phillips got under 2 minutes in the 800-meter run. His time of 1:58.85 currently stands fifth in the conference.