JOHNSON CITY, Tn. – The Bryan College men's and women's track & field team competed in the ETSU Invitational last Friday and Saturday for their first official indoor meet of the season. The Lions experienced great success, with three athletes meeting conference qualifiers and multiple others putting up solid times for the first event.
Kelsey Henderson (FR/Soddy Daisy, Tn.) was the first Bryan athlete to finish with a time good enough to qualify for conference.
She competed in the 60m hurdle where she finished with a time of 10.07 seconds.
Sarah Welch (SO/Dayton, Tn.) was the next Lion to qualify and she did so in both the 800 meter and the 3,000 meter. Welch ran the 800m with a time of 2:29.11 and the 3,000m with a time of 11:28.36.
Aalliyah Worley (SO/Bristol, Va.) was the third and last Bryan athlete to post a performance good enough to qualify for conference. She competed in the shot put where she threw 9.64 meters which was also her personal best.
Nathen Vander Wilt (FR/Birchwood,Tn.) raced in the men's 1 mile for the first time in his career and put up a very impressive time of 4:51.33. He was only six seconds away from qualifying for conference.
Jon David Nelson (SO/Mentone, Al.) competed in the 200 meter and 400 meter and missed qualifying for conference by a mere .06 hundredths of a second.
Coach Josh Bradley is pleased with the success that his athletes showed in this event. Bryan only had two female athletes qualify for conference last year, and they already have three qualified after this first meet. Coach Bradley added, "It's good to see us have success this early in the year. Especially with three hitting conference qualifiers. We hope to keep it up going forward. Our goal is to get as many athletes qualified for the conference as possible. This event was a good step in the right direction."
The Lions next event will be the Buccaneer Invitational, which will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 1. The Appalachian Athletic Conference Championship will take place on Feb. 21-22 at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Follow the Bryan runners on Instagram @bryanxctf.