DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Both the men's and women's Nova Southeastern track and field squads finished in third place at the closing of the Peach Belt Championships on Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus on Saturday. Five of the men's 10 medalists earned gold to aid the 135-point team effort. The women registered 96 points with eight medalists. In total, the Sharks registered 18 PBC All-Conference performances.

Freshman Daniel Duffy was awarded Peach Belt Freshman Male Track Athlete of the Meet, tying with UNC Pembroke's Jamar Adams for the honor. Sophomore distance runner Michelle Bauer and senior decathlete Kyle Forsythe were named to the Peach Belt All-Sportsmanship Team. Forsythe was also named to the PBC Elite 15 for having one of the top GPAs at the championship site.

Host Embry-Riddle earned both team championships with commanding wins, scoring 271.5 points for the men and 207.5 for the women. UNC Pembroke was second on both sides.
 
RUNNING EVENTS

• The final day of competition was a phenomenal outing for Eric Moate, capping an all-around championship performance at PBC. The Lakeland, Fla. senior defended the first of two 2018 titles with a gold-medal victory in the 100m with a 10.49-second finish. Earning his third gold medal of the meet, Moate also preserved his crown dominance in the 200m on a 22.50-second finish against a mighty crosswind. Moate was also part of the 4x100m relay that grabbed gold on Friday. Moate and the relay have previously achieved provisional qualifications for the NCAA Championships late next month.
• Another member of the championship 4x100, junior Ian Nieves went 53.90 in the 400m hurdles for the Peach Belt championship, earning his first title at NSU. Nieves also garnered the silver medal in the 110m hurdles with a wind-aided 14.16.
• Compounding Nieves' 400m hurdles effort, freshman Daniel Duffy helped the Sharks rack up points, coming in second for the silver on a season-best 54.78-second race – lopping 1.64 seconds off his previous best.
• Freshman Michael Parry joined in the gold-medal hunt, edging out Embry-Riddle's Calahan Warren at the line in the 800m final and claiming the PBC title with a 1:53.62 race. Senior Costa Stathis added to NSU's total in the race with a fifth-place 1:57.29. Parry rose up from sitting in fifth to win it down the stretch for NSU.
• Logging four scoring performances and two medals in her first PBC Championships, freshman Carly Rothert's day was highlighted by a silver-medal outing in the 100m hurdles, finishing with 14.96 with the tailwind just .03 away from the title.
• Freshman Charissa Bacon added three individual scoring performances to her total late in the meet, coming in fifth in the 400m hurdles at 1:06.52, seventh in the 100m hurdles at 15.93 and eighth in the 400m dash with a season-best 1:00.55.
• Joining champion Moate in the 100m final, sophomore Zaheem Anderson (10.76) and freshman Timothy Young (10.94) added NSU scores, going sixth and seventh, respectively.
• Freshman Carli Etrick got into the scoring column with a seventh-place finish of 19:16.99 in the women's 5,000m.

FIELD EVENTS

• Senior Kamaria Johnson got the Sharks' day started with medals, first earning silver in the women's shot put with a distance of 12.37m (40-7), followed up by an additional silver in the hammer throw on a mark of 44.64m (146-5).
• Rothert logged the final field event score for NSU in the meet, tying for fifth in the high jump with a height of 1.50m (4-11).

RELAYS

• The men's 4x400m relay crossed the line in fourth with an NSU season-best 3:19.037 on the efforts of Nieves, Duffy, Stathis and Parry.
• The women's 4x400m relay of Bacon, sophomore Kuepper Feehan, freshman Nastassia Tyler and senior Lisa Blackwood finished seventh in 4:12.89 – the best for an NSU team this year.

BEYOND THE RESULTS WITH HEAD COACH BRYAN HAGOPIAN

• "We did a very good job, I'm very proud of everybody," Hagopian said. "They fought tooth and nail, and scrapped for every point and it was a really good meet. I've never seen the team work so hard and be so dedicated in coming together. It was phenomenal and something we worked all year for, and it really paid off."
• "Praising just individuals is so hard because everybody stepped it up. The list goes on and on and on, everybody looked great and it was the best meet we've had all year." 

Up Next: The Sharks will resume non-championship meets, heading to Gainesville for the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational, April 27 at the University of Florida.