Liberty University
ECAC/IC4A Indoor Track Championships
Brandon, Jackson Place 2-3 in ECAC Pentathlon
3/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Liberty's duo of Riley Brandon and Erika Jackson got the Lady Flames off to a fast start at the 2015 IC4A and ECAC Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center on Friday. Brandon finished second and Jackson took third place in the ECAC pentathlon, staking the Lady Flames to an early lead in the team standings.
Through one ECAC event, Liberty's 14 team points put the Lady Flames four points ahead of Sacred Heart for the top spot.
Brandon scored eight of those points with her runner-up finish in the pentathlon, thanks to a career-best score of 3,753 points. One week after winning her second straight Big South pentathlon crown, Brandon made a strong bid for her first ECAC championship.
Brandon trailed Sacred Heart's Nicole Bartosch by 57 points entering the fifth and final event, the 800-meter run. Brandon then sped to an impressive personal-best time of 2:15.61, which ranks sixth in program history for the indoor 800. That enabled the senior to add 117 points to her previous pentathlon personal-best score and climb to No. 3 on the Lady Flames' all-time pentathlon list.
However, Bartosch edged Brandon at the finish line, winning the 800 in 2:15.53 to wrap up her ECAC pentathlon title with 3,809 points.
Earlier in the day, Brandon had equaled her season-best high jump clearance of 5-5 and established a new indoor long jump personal best of 17-6.75.
Jackson finished one position behind teammate Brandon for the second straight meet with a personal-best pentathlon score of 3,553. The junior now ranks seventh in program history after improving upon her previous best by 96 points.
During Friday's competition, Jackson established personal-best marks in the 60 hurdles (9.14), long jump (17-7) and 800 (2:24.87).
Through Friday's quartet of events, sophomore Zach Davis sits second in the IC4A heptathlon standings with 2,952 points. The Big South heptathlon runner-up sits 56 points behind Rhode Island's Mike DiMambro.
Davis ranked second among the heptathletes in both the long jump (22-5.25) and shot put (42-4) before recording the best high jump clearance of the evening at 6-8.
Teammate Tevan McIntire is in sixth place with 2,734 points, while Zach Gilroy's first-day score of 2,502 has him in the 13th position. Gilroy set new personal bests in the long jump (20-1.5) and shot put (37-11.25).
The meet will resume Saturday at 9:45 a.m. with the IC4A heptathlon 60-meter hurdles.
