The North Carolina track and field team opened the 2013 indoor season at home this weekend with the Dick Taylor Invitational. The two-day event featured 11 teams, six clubs and several individuals not attached to a single team.
On Friday, UNC’s women’s team finished with three first-place finishes in events including the women’s high jump, women’s 600-meter run and women’s indoor pentathlon, which is a culmination of five different events.
Freshman Tory Kemp won the women’s pentathlon, and seniors Marisa Dobbins and Ariel Roberts also contributed with wins in the women’s 600 meter run and women’s high jump, respectively.
The men’s team added two first place finishes with victories by senior Reynaldo Radlin in the men’s 600-meter run and Clayton Parros in the men’s 200-meter dash.
“Friday was a good start for us,” Parros said. “We had a certain plan coming into the meet. Coach sat everybody down and gave us all our individual plan, so it was good to go out there and see a lot of people execute the way we were told, and the 200 was part of that.”
On Saturday, both the men and women’s team continued to execute their plans, taking home a total of 12 first-place or top-collegiate finishes in various events including a sweep of both the top three spots in the women’s triple jump and the top two spots in the men’s and women’s distance medley relays.
“I was very pleased with the overall performance of the team,” coach Harlis Meaders said. “A majority of the kids performed really well, and it’s hard to get excellent performances at the beginning of the season.”
Sophomore Cameron Overstreet had one of these performances. Competing in the women’s pole vault on Saturday, Overstreet set a new personal best of 13-5¼ (4.10 meters). The vault was one of the top-5 in the country this season.
“My performance this weekend makes me feel really awesome,” Overstreet said. “Obviously, starting the season off strong is really helpful, and it gives me excitement and shows all of my hard work is paying off.”
