DAY ONE RESULTS (PDF)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Jordan Smith won his first Big South Conference title Friday in the shot put, leading a solid day for both Gardner-Webb squads at the 2015 Big South Indoor Track & Field Championships at JDL Fast Track.
The Gardner-Webb men sit fourth with 20 team points entering Saturday's final day of action and the women are in fifth – just six points out of fourth place.
Smith won the Big South Conference title spectacular fashion, blistering his career-best mark with a distance of 15.96 meters. A.J. White followed with points by taking third place with a distance of 15.44 meters.
Freshman Clay Hamilton went 13.82 meters with his third effort of the day to finish eighth and score points for the Runnin' Bulldogs.
Gardner-Webb had several nice results in preliminary running events Friday with four spots in Saturday's finals.
Marcquel Woodard had the fastest time in the men's 400m dash preliminaries, finishing in a personal-best time of 50.39 seconds, nipping the times of three Liberty runners to head into Saturday's finals with momentum. Joseph Martin had the seventh-best time to also qualify for the finals.
Malik Crawford broke the tape in 7.03 seconds for the third-best time in the 60m preliminaries. Crawford also qualified for the finals in the 200m dash, running a 22.75-second time – the fourth-best time of the day. It was also the second-best time of Crawford's career indoors (22.62 in 2014).
Ben Bell is also poised to score team points, sitting within striking distance entering the final three events of the men's heptathlon. Bell is holding steady in third position with 2,671 points after Friday's first four events.
On the women's side, Megan Melton tied for second in the pole vault, clearing a personal-best 3.60m to earn All-Big South Conference honors. Elise Moffatt also scored in the event, finishing in a tie for seventh (3.45 meters).
Kristen Hurley earned All-Big South Conference honors in the pentathlon Thursday, finishing third with 3,271 points. It marked the third top-3 finish of the Columbia, Conn., senior's career in the event. She was the Big South Conference champion as a sophomore and junior.
Teammate Ashleigh Cleveland took eighth in the pentathlon, scoring 2,868 points to account for a team point for the Runnin' Bulldogs.
Sarah Mitchell finished fourth in the shot put with a distance of 13.24 meters, finishing just off her season-best effort.
Sarah Perkins qualified for the finals with Friday's eighth-best time in the women's 400m dash.
Friday's final day of action will begin at 10:00 am at JDL Fast Track. Follow live results at this link.
