The North Carolina track and field team traveled down I-40 to Winston-Salem this weekend to participate in the highly competitive Hilton Garden Invitational.
Nine Tar Heels, and a couple of former Tar Heels, competed in the races on Friday and Saturday.
Friday’s races saw four Tar Heel runners participating, with the highlight of the day coming from freshman Kwame Donyinah. Donyinah finished seventh in a men’s 400-meter that had 88 competitors.
Sophomore Steven Mulherin had a fast day, placing ninth out of 44 runners that competed in the men’s 300-meter.
A pair of Tar Heel women also had solid performances on Friday. Iman Wilkerson, a junior from Pittsburg, P.A., finished 23rd out of 93 runners in the women’s 400-meter, while freshman Charity Lackey placed 35th out of 75 in the women’s 800-meter.
Saturday is where the Tar Heels really shined, with five of the Tar Heels’ six runners participating in the Camel City Elite Races.
Junior Annie LeHardy got things going for UNC in the women’s 3,000 meter. LeHardy’s converted time of 9:11.83 helped her finish fourth in the race, while besting her personal record by more than 30 seconds and finishing before two professional runners in the process. Former Tar Heel Addie Bracy finished third in the event.
LeHardy’s time is not only a personal best but also gives her the third-fastest 3,000 time in the NCAA this year. For the Tar Heels, LeHardy wasn’t the only runner to crack this year’s top 10 times in his or her respective event.
Junior Ryan Walling posted the sixth-fastest time in the NCAA on the men’s side of the 3,000 meter. His time was good enough for a fourth-place finish while fellow junior Scott Morgan finished 13th.
Elizabeth Whelan, a sophomore from Toronto, also posted a third-fasted NCAA mark. She finished fourth in the women’s 800-meter with a converted time of 2:05.59.
Senior Issac Presson opened some eyes with his sub-four minute mile. His converted time of 3:59.23 gave him a fourth-place finish, as well as the third fasted time in the NCAA this year.
Wilkerson was the only Tar Heel to compete on both Friday and Saturday. In Saturday’s women’s seeded 200-meter dash, Wilkerson finished 9th, which was the second highest finish among the 71 non-seeded runners.
The Tar Heels will be back at it this upcoming weekend, when they will travel to New York City to compete in the Armory Collegiate Invitational.
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