WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. | The Young Harris College men's track & field team delivered a strong performance at the Camel City Distance Classic (College) on Saturday (Feb. 8) at the JDL Fast Track, with several Mountain Lions improving their conference rankings ahead of the postseason. 

Freshman Ryder Holland highlighted the day by hitting the Conference Carolinas automatic qualifying mark in the 800-meter run, crossing the line in 2:00.12 to place 20th overall. In the 3,000-meter run, freshman Aidan Vrazel shattered his personal best, clocking 9:06.72 for 41st place. Junior Noah Mason impressed in the mile, running 4:31.93 to finish 23rd, putting himself in strong contention for a conference championship bid. 

QUOTE FROM HEAD COACH MATT LOGAN: 

"We saw a lot of good things today. Our men moved up the conference descending order list and are in a good place going into conference. I think Ryder, Aidan, and Noah Mason really stood out as our performers of the meet. We were missing a couple of key guys today, and I'm proud of our resiliency. Our entire group has been fighting a wave of illness that's really impacted training. We have two weeks to get healthy and be ready for conference." 

800-Meter Run 

• Ryder Holland – 20th place, 2:00.12 (Heat 5) – Conference Auto-Qualifier 

• Noah Mason – 41st place, 2:06.23 (Heat 7) 

• Austin Dezwart – 42nd place, 2:06.43 (Heat 5) 

• Luke Sigman – 43rd place, 2:06.55 (Heat 6) 

• Noah Scheuer – 55th place, 2:11.65 (Heat 7) 

1-Mile Run

• Noah Mason – 23rd place, 4:31.93 (Heat 4) – Conference Qualifier Contender 

• Ryder Holland – 50th place, 4:43.04 (Heat 4) 

• Brayden Figgins – 52nd place, 4:44.74 (Heat 6) 

• Alan Pacheco – 60th place, 4:51.56 (Heat 6) 

• Noah Scheuer – 64th place, 4:52.76 (Heat 5) 

• Gabe Pattacini – DNF (Heat 6) 

3,000-Meter Run 

• Aidan Vrazel – 41st place, 9:06.72 (Heat 5) – Personal Best 

5,000-Meter Run 

• Matthew Honeycutt – 19th place, 16:15.54 (Heat 2) 

Up Next:

The Mountain Lions will return to action at the Conference Carolinas Indoor Championships on February 23rd and 24th at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.