The No. 11 UCF track and field team witnessed two school records fall on Saturday at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational thanks to impressive performances from sophomore Octavious Freeman and junior Ne’Ausha Logan.
Freeman proved unstoppable once again by topping the 200-meter school record with the world’s top wind-legal time this year, 22.57 (+0.1). The world’s current 100-meter leader edged three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist Lauryn Williams in a photo finish to claim first place.
Logan catapulted herself into the NCAA’s top 25 this year with the best performance by a Knight in the 800M since 2009, finishing third in 2:06.37. She shaved nearly three seconds off her previous season best and continues to reign as Conference USA’s top 800M runner in 2013.
After a lengthy weather delay that sidelined the field athletes for more than four hours and pushed back the race schedule by 30 minutes, the 4×100 relay opened the meet with a performance that was worth the wait. Afia Charles, Aurieyall Scott, Alexis Faulknor and Freeman combined to cross the finish line in 43.58 for the third-best time in the NCAA this season. UCF and Texas A&M are currently the only two programs in the country to boast multiple times in the event that rank among the nation’s top 10.
Charles had a breakthrough in the 400 meters with her fastest race in more than a year, clinching first place with a time of 53.77. Charles moved up on the NCAA East Region leaderboard to No. 15.
Scott etched her name on the NCAA’s top-10 leaderboard this season in her first 100-meter race since her gold-medal finish at the NACAC U-23 Championships last July. She won the second heat in 11.30 and finished second overall only to Lauryn Williams. Senior Amanda Leland produced the second-best wind-legal time of her career (11.85) in the race before topping her personal best in the 200M soon after with a time of 24.64 (+0.0).
Junior Erica Winston clocked a new personal-record 2:10.55 in her best 800M race in two years to finish seventh. Freshman Caroline Pauls won the second heat of the event in 2:13.24, which was good enough for ninth place.
Sandy Jean emerged as the top collegiate finisher in the 400 hurdles with her time of 59.20, marking her second time of 2013 that ranks among the East Region’s top 15. Freshman Rayeisha Lowe-Chin recorded the best time of her career at 1:03.60.
Three Knights finished among the top five in the 1500 meters. Sophomore Amelia Williams led the way in third place by improving her personal best for the second time this season (4:45.07). Sophomore Cody Castillo finished fourth in 4:51.58 and freshman Rachel Petrik was close behind in fifth with a time of 4:55.17.
Freshman Jocelin Adona capped the races as the Knights’ lone representative in the 3,000- meter finals and cruised to third place with a personal-record time of 11:00.56.
Freshman Megan Patterson boasted the best finish by a field athlete of the day with a second-place toss of 14.21m/46-07.25 in the shot put. The Knights also earned two top-three finishes from Erica Weiss in the pole vault after clearing 3.60m/11-09.75, and Precious Ogunleye in the discus with a mark of 45.75m/150-01.
Ogunleye led three Knights in the hammer throw with a fourth-place showing of 53.43m/175-03 for another mark that ranks among Conference USA’s top five this season.
Up next, the Knights will visit Gainesville for the second time in three weeks when they compete at the Tom Jones Invitational on April 20.