By Kendall Peterson

Even though senior Dylan Blake was positioned last at the start of his heat in the mile at the invitational at Christopher Newport University, he was able to push towards the front, running his best time yet at 4:55.

Blake was in the fourth heat out of seven, and being able to run the mile under five minutes was “a really big accomplishment for me, and I got to go back to my teammates and they were all there cheering me on,” and helped make it a great experience for him.

The CNU invitational “gave everyone an opportunity to hit their [personal records],” according to junior Sarah Kinka, who ran a 5:42 for the mile, which was her PR for the season. She was ranked 13th at the start in the top heat, which categorizes the runners based on their previous times, and ended in 9th place.

Sophomores Logan Warden and Madeline McKechnie were also able to attend the meet. Warden was placed in the second heat for the mile and managed to win, even though this was her first meet since middle school. McKechnie also ran the mile, with a time of 6:08.

Senior Jackson Martingayle ran the two-mile race in the first heat, finishing in third place with a PR time was 9:44.

Overall, at the CNU Invitational, “a lot of us hit really strong times,” said Kinka, which led them to the event at Liberty University the following week.

Only six runners attended the Liberty University meet, which also consisted of runners all around Virginia and surrounding states.

At the LU meet, Kinka ran the mile in 5:42 in the fifth heat, and was ranked around 80th out of 200 other runners. In order to improve her time, she said her goal is to “start out strong and continue to chase after the next person,” for future races.

Kinka also ran the two-mile along with around 100 other runners, running a 12:16, finishing about 30th out of over 100 runners.

Overall, “my times for each race were around 10 seconds faster,” from her performance at the beginning of the year, said Kinka, and, “looking back at the same meet that I raced last year, I definitely improved a lot.”

Martingayle was again in the two-mile race and managed to finish 17th in his heat. He was only one second over his time at CNU, with a 9:45.

Reflecting on both experiences, Martingayle said, “Going into my next 3200, I think I need to start a tiny bit more aggressive and make sure I don’t start slowing down in the middle of the race.”

With these two meets behind them, the indoor track team is now looking forward to going to regionals within the next week and their “goal is to get into states,” said Blake.