Cougars Submit Spectacular Performances in Outdoor Debut

Friday, March 16

Conway, S.C.

College of Charleston

Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational

Photo by: Carlos Morales

Cougars Submit Spectacular Performances in Outdoor Debut

3/18/2018 10:32:00 AM | Women's Track & Field

CONWAY, S.C. – The College of Charleston track & field program made a statement in their outdoor debut over the weekend at Coastal Carolina's Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational, nearly overturning a pair of school records in the process.

Sophomore Leona Burton Rojas finished fourth overall in the long jump with a career-performance, coming within 2cm of Jelain McArthur's eight-year-old school record with a leap of 5.80m. She wasn't the only one to turn heads in the jumps, as both Carlee Neel (1.55m, 7^th) and Stephanie Laudien (11.75m, 7^th) cracked the CofC Outdoor Top 10 lists in the high jump at tenth and the triple jump at fourth respectively.

Freshman phenom Marissa Linkous meanwhile picked up right where she left off from the indoor season, etching her name onto three sprinting Top 10 lists. Her first and most impressive performance came in the form of a 13^thplace finish in the 100m dash, where the Virginia native was just 0.01 seconds shy of matching Kennay Agnew's school record when she clocked in at 12.30 seconds. Linkous later took third in the 400m with a time of 57.45 seconds to vault up to No. 5 on the CofC Top 10 list, and finished things off with an eighth place time (25.09) in the 200m dash to reach No. 4 in school history in that event.

Linkous wasn't the only Cougar to turn heads in the short distance events. Holly Driver won the 400m hurdles outright with a time of 1:03.50 to surge up to No. 3 on the CofC Top 10 performance list, and just barely missed cracking the 400m sprint record with her time of 59.29 seconds. Kayla Ennis was hot on her trail in the 400m hurdles, finishing tenth (1:07.14) to crack the performance list at No. 8, and also finished second overall in the 400m open with her time of 60.65. Also of note, Hannah Vanderwall ran a personal best time of 26.9 seconds in the 200m open.

As has become her standard, Simone Harris had a huge day for the Cougars in the throws when she added over seven meters (a distance that is longer than an adult giraffe is tall) to her hammer throw PR when she made a sixth-place lob of 47m. That effort surged her to No. 2 on the school's Top 10 performance list, and was just one of her strong performances over the weekend, as the sophomore also finished first among the Cougars in the shot put (13.17m, 8^th) and the discus (37.38m, 8^th).

Harris wasn't the only Cougar to record a strong finish in the hammer throw, as Courtney Brooks and Lydia Bussey each recorded personal best throws to advance to No. 3 and No. 6 respectively on the school's performance list. In the javelin throw, Jenny Martin took fourth with a heave of 36.68m, while Madeline Weber achieved a PR and edged in at No. 10 on the school's Top 10 list when she threw for 31.30m.

In the distance events, Katherine Linn shaved a whopping six seconds off her 800m personal best to finish second overall with a time of 2:30.29. Freshman Cate Ambrose had a solid showing with a pair of eighth place finishes in the mile (5:10.91) and 3000m (10:36.48), while Jace Kosiorek shed 27 seconds from her 5000m PR by running a 19:31.

Last but not least, four men ran personal bests for the Cougars. Crew Kosiorek (4:23.12), Tyler Fish (4:23.24) and Declan Hines (4:19.54) did so in the mile, Hines struck again in the 3000m (8:36.32), and Evan Peirce rounded things out in the 5000m (16:19).

The Cougars return to action next weekend at the University of South Carolina's Weems Baskin Invitational.