Liberty University
ECAC/IC4A Indoor Track Championships
Jackson Wins ECAC Pentathlon Title
3/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
For the second consecutive Friday, Liberty senior Erika Jackson won a conference pentathlon championship. This time around, she captured the ECAC pentathlon title on the opening day of the 2016 IC4A and ECAC Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, inside the Boston University Track and Tennis Center.
Jackson, who had won her first Big South pentathlon championship one week prior, added her first ECAC pentathlon crown on Friday. Freshman teammate Kylie Polsgrove chipped in an eighth-place pentathlon finish, helping the Lady Flames sit atop the ECAC standings with 11 points through one event. Elon currently ranks second with eight points.
Jackson scored a career-best 3,706 points, but her victory was not secure until the final event, the 800-meter run. The Lynchburg native entered the 800 with a 42-point advantage over Elon's Emily Dixon, who went on to win the event in 2:24.47. Jackson finished just 1.81 seconds later, in a season-best time of 2:26.28, wrapping up an 18-point win over Dixon.
Jackson took the lead for good after event No. 3, the shot put, where she paced the 15-member field with a personal-best heave of 38-6.75. She then matched her personal-best long jump of 17-10.25, putting Jackson in position to join Danielle McNaney (2004 and 2005) as the only Lady Flames ever to win an ECAC pentathlon title.
Jackson improved from her third-place finish in the 2015 ECAC pentathlon by adding 111 points to her previous best score. She now ranks No. 4 in program history following her final collegiate pentathlon competition.
Polsgrove also notched a new personal-best pentathlon score on Friday, tallying 3,427 points for eighth place overall and second among freshmen. Polsgrove's score fell just 38 points shy of McNaney's Liberty freshman record, achieved at the 2002 ECAC meet.
Polsgrove tied for the competition's second-best high jump clearance (5-5.25) and threw the shot put a career-best 28-6.5 before closing out her day with a personal-best 2:26.69 in the 800.
Redshirt senior Audrey Bamford followed in 10th place with a season-best 3,275 points. She recorded her top long jump (17-5.5) and 800 (2:42.14) marks of the 2016 campaign on the day.
Big South heptathlon champion Zach Gilroy ranks eighth with 2,444 points through day one of the IC4A heptathlon, putting him one point ahead of teammate and Big South heptathlon runner-up Lewis Williams in ninth. Freshman Caleb Rider currently ranks 11th with 2,271 points.
Gilroy's 6-2.25 high jump clearance equaled the best of the competition, following a personal-best 20-4.5 long jump mark. Meanwhile, Williams posted the third-best shot put mark with his personal-best 42-7 put.
Competing in just his second career heptathlon, Rider improved his Big South efforts in both the long jump (19-3.25) and high jump (5-5).
The meet will resume Saturday at 9 a.m. with the start of the IC4A heptathlon 60-meter hurdles.
