After a successful outing at the Bob Pollock Meet the previous weekend, NC State track and field continued to impress at the Camel City Invitational on Feb. 3 and 4. Once again, a large number of Wolfpack athletes recorded personal best marks and placed in the top-10 of their events.

Day one of the invite was highlighted by a series of top-10 finishes in the weighted throw from freshman Nathan Lau and juniors Makala Wright and Mahkayla Hart. On the men’s side, Lau took seventh place with a personal-best mark of 16.73m. Wright captured second and Hart took fourth in the women’s event with throws of 18.11m and 17.04m, respectively. 

On day two, the Pack’s distance runners set six total personal bests and claimed 10 top-10 finishes. Junior Travis Koekemoer stole the show with a first-place finish in the men’s mile, clocking in at 4:07.82. 

NC State also performed well in the 3000m elite event. In the men’s event, junior Ian Harrison, graduate student Ian Shanklin and freshman David Vorbach crossed the finish line at 7:55.35, 7:56.82 and 8:02.92, respectively. Both Harrison and Shanklin set new personal bests, and all three athletes finished in the top-10. On the women’s side, senior Kelsey Chmiel took third with a time of 8:59.25 and set a personal best of her own. Graduate student Sydney Seymour finished just outside the top-10 at 11th with a time of 9:28.83. 

For the women’s team, the impressive performances did not stop there. Freshman Grace Hartman and junior Gionna Quarzo each took second place in their events. Hartman clocked in at 4:43.78 in the mile, and graduate student Sarah Latour followed close behind in fourth place at 4:51.30. Quarzo recorded a time of 9:24.44 in the 3000m event. 

In the women’s mile elite event, senior Sam Bush finished in a time of 4:39.79 to take fourth place. 

The red-and-white looks to continue this trend of personal-best performances next weekend at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, SC. Competition will take place on Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb. 11.