Mrytle Beach S.C. | Young Harris Track and Field continued their outdoor track season this past Friday (March 13th) and Saturday (March 14th) competing at the Myrtle Beach Collegiate Challenge. The Mountain Lions looked towards this meet as a chance to compete against high level talent across all divisions early in the season. 

During the two-day meet there were 20 personal bests that highlighted the mountain lion's performance. The mountain lions placed 6th overall out of 26 teams. The men's 5,000m squad led by senior Wyatt Whipp highlighted the first day with all five men being led under the conference auto qualifying standard. The Mountain Lions currently have five men ranked in the top 7 in the 5,000m with Whipp ranked 1st with a time of 15:12.90. Freshman Lexi Greene finished up day one with a strong 10,000m to get under the conference standard Lexie is also ranked 1st in the 10,000m. Noah Mason and Dylan Stone started day two off running two conference standards in the 1500m. Thrasher Wilkins continued the day in the 800m running another conference qualifying time and is currently ranked third in the conference. Ryland Hunley and Evan Johnson both ran strong in the 400m to run personal bests. To finish off day two, sophomore Xander Potter came back from the 5,000m to compete in the 3,000m steeplechase; Potter is currently ranked 1st in the conference with a time of 9:39.56. 

Quote from director of track and field Matt Logan: "It's not a hyperbole to say this was the best weekend in our young program's history. We had double-digits auto Qs for the conference meet. We had multiple school records and 80% of the teams ran personal bests. It was a great weekend"  

Men's Highlights:

• Wyatt Whipp competed in the 5,000m running 15:12.90 placing 3rd  

• Aidan Vrazel ran 15:15.27 in the 5,000m placing 4th  

• Dylan Stone placed 7th in the 5,000m running 15:25.66  

• Austin Dezwart ran 15:29.90 and placed 11th in the 5,000m  

• Xander Potter ran the 5,000m in 15:32.70 placing 12th and placed 4th in the 3,000m SC in 9:39.56 

• Evan Johnson ran a personal best of 51.64 in the 400m  

• Thrasher Wilkins ran 1:57.62 in the 800m to place 12th  

Women's Highlights:

• Lexi Greene placed 3rd in 10,000m in 38:55.58  

• Caroline Bass ran the 1500m in a personal best of 5:38.45  

• Julia Hargrove placed 7th in the 5,000m running 19:58.48  

• Caitlyn Thaman ran 12:06.50 in the 3,000m to place 5th  

• Ashley Mendoza ran 2:36.88 in the 800m  

• Emmi Proctor competed in the 400m running 1:02.95  

• Natalie Payne ran 42:40.41 in the 10,000m  

Up Next:

Young Harris Track and Field will continue to keep their momentum as they compete next at the Emory Thrills in the Hills invitational on March 26th , 27th , and 28th .