The track and field indoor season started with a bang in Chapel Hill, where the Eddie Smith Field House hosted five days of competition in the span of nine days.
The Dick Taylor Challenge doubled as the first annual Carolina Cup, a competition among track and field teams from North Carolina. For the men’s teams, East Carolina came in first, followed by Duke in second and North Carolina in third. On the women’s side, Duke came in first while the Tar Heels finished in second.
One of the stars for North Carolina this weekend was freshman Emily Godwin, who ran her first pentathlon as a Tar Heel. Godwin placed third with 3,740 points, which is good for the fourth-best pentathlon score in school history.
“Coming into it I was nervous, but I was also excited,” Godwin said. “We don’t really have very many chances to do a pentathlon throughout the year … so you just have to take advantage of every opportunity that you have.”
North Carolina had many athletes resting this weekend for various reasons including injury, fatigue and in preparation for upcoming events. But the Tar Heels did get strong performances from some that did participate.
Among the bright spots at the Dick Taylor Challenge were senior Tristine Johnson, who won the women’s long jump and triple jump, and senior Roy Smith, who won the 60-meter hurdles.
Smith, whose personal record coming into the season in the 60-meter hurdles was eight seconds flat, has now recorded times of 7.92, 7.91, and 7.87 in the past two weeks. The time of 7.87, which was the winner on Friday, is good for the third-fastest time in school history.
And to make his accomplishments even more impressive, Smith ran injured, having tweaked his hamstring a week before.
“I just ran off of adrenaline, even though I was still hurt,” Smith said. “It was just the adrenaline inside me that pushed me.”
