Tornado Men Finish 12th In Conference

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The King University men's track & field team completed their two day competition at the Conference Carolinas Indoor Track & Field Conference Championship hosted at JDL Fast Track.

THE BASICS
SCORE: 6 Points (12th place out of 13)
LOCATION: JDL Fast Track; Winston-Salem, NC

HOW IT HAPPENED - Day 1

• The men's distance medley relay team, comprised of Spencer Utsey, Ben Carr, Lance Hatcher, and Sean Kilpatrick, who ran legs of 1200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, and 1600 meters, respectively. Utsey got King out to a great start running a 1200 meter leg of 3:15.64. The men finished in 8^th place overall with a time of 10:52.11, just 2.09 seconds from the NCAA school record.
• The 60 meter dash saw Domincik Stevens and Lynden Johnson, both running identical times of 6.90. This was an all-time personal best for Stevens. Unfortunately, neither athlete qualified for the 60 meter final.
• In the men's weight throw, Jesse Owens represented the King Tornado men and was just an inch and a half away from tying his personal best. Owens had a best heave of 12.24m (40'2").
• Kilpatrick later raced the 5k and ran a consistent and respectable 16:04, good enough for 13^th place overall. One mile into the race Kilpatrick was in 20^th place running relatively even splits while most of the field went out very aggressively. Over the next two miles, Kilpatrick passed 7 runners to move up to 13th.
• To close out the night for the men, Stevens followed up his personal best in the 60 meter dash with another personal best in the 200 meter dash with a time of 22.37. The final time to qualify for tomorrow's 200 meter final was 22.10.

HOW IT HAPPENED - Day 2

• In the 800, Spencer Utsey and Lance Hatcher fed off each other to finish in times of 2:01.23 and 2:01.70, respectively. 
• Sean Kilpatrick ran an all-time PR of 9:06.87 in the 3k. 
• In the shot put, Jesse Owens had a best throw of 12.12m (39'9.25").
• Mackey Bonds showed up big in the high jump with a 7^th place overall finish with a best jump of 1.90m (6'2.75") to score 2 points for the team. 
• Going into the 4x400 relay to close the night, the King Tornado men were ranked 11^th and not predicted to score as a team. However, the quartet of Skyler Miller, Thomas Grant, Matthew Henfield, and Spencer Utsey ran legs of 54.77, 51.43, 50.69, and 52.83, which was good enough for a 6^th place finish and 3 points toward the team total.  

UP NEXT
The indoor track & field season has come to a close for all athletes, except for junior, Lynden Johnson, who is currently ranked 6^th in the nation in the 60 meter dash with a best time of 6.68. Johnson continues his pursuit toward the NCAA National Championship while the rest of the team prepares for the upcoming outdoor track & field season, which starts competition on Friday, March 21st at Appalachian State University.