The North Carolina track and field team traveled to South Bend, Indiana to participate in the Notre Dame Invite.
What happened?
The Tar Heels continued their early season momentum on Saturday with the women placing third, and the men placing fifth in the invite. Both teams saw strong individual performances as well. UNC finished in the top three in an event 14 times — eight on the women’s side, and six for the men.
Who stood out?
While it was only a week between meets, the UNC team still managed to take impressive strides since last Saturday. Long jumper Joey Souza bested his mark from last week by nearly .2 meters. His improvement from 7.37 meters a week ago to 7.53 meters helped him to earn a second-place finish in the meet.
In addition the Suza’s progression, there were numerous other Tar Heels to showcase their development. Among those with career best performances on Saturday were sprinters D’Monte Farley and Brandon Reddick in the 60-meter dash for the men, while Jewel Christian set a personal record in the 200-meter and 400-meter races, Morgan Ilse posted a career high in the 3000-meter race, and Alex Cooke put on a career-best performance in the weight throw.
When was it decided?
With the points totals being added up throughout the competition, it became evident midway through the day that the Tar Heels would not be able to grasp the first-place finish. With solid efforts on the latter end of the day the Tar Heel women were able to separate themselves for third, while Souza’s long jump helped to solidify the men’s spot in fifth.
