LYNCHBURG, VA- The NC Wesleyan College men's and women's track and field teams competed Saturday in the Dennis Craddock Coaches Classic in Lynchburg.

The meet was full of improved performances from all the athletes and gave NCWC the opportunity to compete against some of the top talent in D1, D2, D3, and JUCO as each runner stepped up and ran new personal bests and set new school records in a variety of events.

In the 100 meter dash, juniors Blaise Gourley, Luis Ross, and Ishmael Moses each ran personal-bests.  Gourley's time of 11.6 seconds placed him 46th overall out of 70 and makes him the 2^nd fastest 100 meters runner in NCWC history. Moses finished right behind him in 11.75 seconds while Ross finished in 12.1 seconds.

But the day started off with the men's 4x100 meter relay team of sophomore Joseph Turner,  Ross, Gourley, and Moses as they improved their time from last week running the relay in 45 seconds to place 13th, which is the 4^th fastest time in the conference.  

The 1500 meter race then came next with junior Terenthen Parker continuing to run faster as the season goes along, as he ran a season best time of 4:29 to place 32nd out of nearly 60 runners.

Junior Maleik Small ran in the fast heat of the 400 meters and ran a solid race to place 23rd and finish with a time of 53.5 seconds.  His fellow teammate, and previous high school teammate, junior Keyonte Williams ran the 400 meter hurdles and improved on his school record with a time of 1:01.9 to finish 18th overall. 

The 3,000 meter steeplechase was then run by freshman Chris Sielkowski and sophomore Philly Barungi, with Sielkowski tying the school record of 11:05 held by Barungi to place 13th while Barungi ran a time of 11:22 to finish 15th.  Sielkowski improved his time from last week and made a huge jump in understanding of how to run this event. The duo is tied for the 5^th fastest time in the conference as they approach the conference championships at the end of the month.

The Javelin throw is the only field event that the men competed in, and Francisco Rodriguez threw a season-best mark of 34.2 meters to place 19th out of 25 athletes. This was an improvement and is a new NCWC school record.  "Rodriguez continues to improve every week and has a chance to score and place in the top 5 at the conference championships," said coach Marshall Leonard.

The day was wrapped up with a solid performance of the 4x400 relay team, which ran a time of 3:36 tying their previous best time of the season to place 7th out of 12 teams.  Originally the team consisting of Gourley, Small, Parker, and Turner were scheduled to run in the second heat, which had relay teams that were slower than teams in the 1^st heat.  However, the meet official asked teams in the 2^nd heat to volunteer to run in the 1^st heat (faster teams) and no one volunteered except the NC Wesleyan team.  

"They asked if we wanted to run in the fast heat," said Small to coach Leonard, "and I said yes. Coach we want to always run against the fastest teams."  Coach Leonard agreed with his junior's mindset and was proud of his answer to the meet official.