Bluestone News

Track and Field Men Place Second, Women Place Third at HBCU Classic

Bluefield State University's fledging track and field programs earned their first pair of team invitational trophies Monday, when the men placed second and the women placed third at the Humana Healthcare HBCU Classic in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Emma Flynn (3,000 meters and 1,000) and Kellie Williams (800 meters), Austin Sigman (1,000 meters) and Tyler Davis (3,000 meters) earned first place individual finishes on the day, propelling each squad to its best ever finish in a scored meet. Sixteen Big Blue athletes took event medals for top-three event finishes.  

Tennessee State University, an NCAA Division I member of the Ohio Valley Conference, took the men's championship trophy and finished second place in the women's competitions. Coached by three-time Olympic games medalist and two-time Team USA Olympic coach Chandra Cheesebourough, TSU has produced athletes who have won 32 Olympic medals, including Team USA legends Wilma Rudolph and Ralph Boston.  

Lane College, an NCAA Division II member of the SIAC, took the team title in the women's competition. 

"Last year, we came to this meet—the third one in school history—in one fifteen-passenger van," said B-State Head Coach Brooks Rexroat. "Today, we came in a bus, we doubled our point output from last year, and improved our place standing substantially, despite greatly elevated competition. I'm intensely proud of this group and how far we've come as a program in such a short time. We're getting better athletically, but also learning how to pick each other up over the course of a long competition. That speaks volumes to the work these young men and women are undertaking." 

Breakout performances for the Big Blue included a new school record and third-place finish for freshman Myles Rice, who tossed the shot put 12.72 meters. Sophomore Sherman Franklin followed up with a huge lifetime best in the weight throw, earning a fourth-place finish with a 13.68 meter performance—a nearly 4-meter improvement from his previous best mark and the best-ever B-State performance by nearly a meter. 

Austin Sigman placed in four individual events, earning 23 points on the day, while Khrisalyn Kegler (60 meter hurdles, 4X400m relay, and 600m), Raelyn Vadala (high jump, triple jump), Williams (600 meters, 800 meters, 4X400 meter relay, and mile run) and Flynn (mile run, 1,000 meters, 3,000 meters) all placed in multiple events for the women's squad. 

"We asked a lot of our team today in order to really test ourselves on the scoreboard, and they responded, Rexroat said. "We'll come back Friday at Appalachian State with smaller individual workloads and let each athlete contest their primary event as we push toward some strong individual marks at that meet. We like where the team is heading as we get into the core of the indoor season.  

Meet action kicks off at 4 p.m. Friday in the Holmes Convocation Center on the campus of Appalachian State University. 

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