Williamsburg, KY – The University of Pikeville men's and women's track & field teams competed at the Mid-South Conference Outdoor Championships over the past two days. The event was hosted by University of the Cumberlands. The men finished in eighth place and the women finished in ninth. UPIKE had four podium finishes over the two days.

Noah Thomas scored 26 points over four events for the men, and was named the MSC Track & Field Outdoor Athlete of the Year. He is the first Bear in program history to earn the honor.

On Sunday, he won the hammer throw with a personal best mark of 51.35m, which beat the field by over four meters and gave him 10 points. In the javelin Sunday, he earned eight points with a personal best toss of 47.59m, giving him second place. This gives him First Team All-Conference honors in the hammer throw and Second Team in the javelin.

This afternoon, he finished fifth in both the shot put and discus throw, earning a total of eight points. He posted a throw of 13.63m in the shot put and 42.28m in the discus.

On the women's side, both Valerie Kendrick and Verlecia Scarlett performed well for UPIKE. They both scored points in the shot put this afternoon, with Kendrick finishing fourth for five points at 12.06m and Scarlett finishing seventh for two points at 11.01m. This was an outdoor personal best for Kendrick.

In the hammer throw yesterday, Scarlett threw a personal best 41.72m to finish third and score six points. Kendrick also threw a personal best, finishing 11th at 35.33m. Kendrick finished third in the discus today with a mark of 36.93m to score six points while Scarlett posted a throw of 22.05m. Scarlett earns Third Team All-Conference honors in the hammer throw while Kendrick is Third-Team in the discus.

Bobby Allums competed in the preliminaries in both the 100 meter and 200-meter dashes. He finished 12th in the 100, with a time of 10.96, which was just shy of a personal best. He ran a 23.47 in the 200.

Ethan Moore competed in the shot put, hammer throw, javelin throw, and discus throw for the Bears. He posted personal bests in both the discus (35.05m, 14th place) and javelin (32.17m). He finished 13th in the hammer throw with a mark of 26.30m and had a toss of 9.36m in the shot put.
 
Avery Adderley tied his personal best in the high jump, with a clearance of 1.75m.

"What a weekend we had" said head coach David Espinoza. "We set ourselves up to compete at our best and that's what we did. Couldn't be happier with all of our PR's and performances."

What's Up Next
This concludes the season for the Bears as a team, they will be back in action this winter for the indoor season. However, Noah Thomas will be competing in the discus throw at the upcoming NAIA Outdoor National Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama on May 26th.