TAMPA – The East Carolina track & field team completed a weather-marred day two of the 2023 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships on Saturday.

Jared Harrell’s individual title highlighted a day in which eight Pirates put points on the board and a host of others recorded personal bests and top-10 marks in program history.
 
The day was a long one as a lengthy weather delay presented a challenge, and perhaps an opportunity to reset, for competing athletes.
 
Bad weather or not, the star of the day for ECU was undoubtedly Harrell. The star freshman defended his AAC long jump crown from the indoor season with a leap of 7.45m (24-5.5), besting a stout field on his first jump of the finals. Harrell’s jump also moves him to seventh in program history in the event outdoors.
 
Harrell wasn’t the only victorious Pirates on the day, though. Royal Burris won his heat of the 100m prelims with a time of 10.42. Melicia Mouzzon will be joining Burris Sunday as she ran the fastest time qualifier out of the prelims to advance to the women’s 100m final. Sydni McMillan also advanced to a final based on time on Saturday, in the 100m hurdles.
 
Starrett Vesper and Tereza Babicka kicked the day off once again and both finished strong with top-10 times in program history and huge personal bests. Babicka came up just shy of scoring while Vesper earned three points with his sixth-place finish.
 
On the women’s side in the jumps, Elizabeth Taylor had an excellent day as she leapt to an eighth-place finish with her jump of 5.89m.
 
The distance squad came up big again on Saturday with a host of PRs and a few point scorers in Nick Willer in the men’s 3,000m steeple, Lindsay Yentz in the women’s steeple and Alyssa Zack in the 10,000m. Willer and Yentz both ran the second-fastest respective times in program history to finish fifth and seventh. Zack finished a strong seventh in her race.
 
Last but certainly not least, Naadiya Faison and Logan Carroll both scored in the shot put with their eighth and seventh-place results, respectively.
 
ECU Results
Men
100m Prelim: Royal Burris, 10.42Q
110mH Prelim: Asa Simmons, 14.74 (9^th)
400m Prelim: Zach Ray, 48.54 (13^th)
800m Prelim: Coleman Ferrell, 1:54.95 (16^th)
3,000m Steeple: Nick Willer, 9:15.20 (5^th)
Long Jump: Jared Harrell, 7.45m (1^st) | Nate Williams, 6.70m (11^th)
Shot Put: Logan Carroll, 16.37m (7^th)
Decathlon: Starrett Vesper, 6,561 (6^th)
 
Women
100m Prelim: Melicia Mouzzon, 11.54q | Rosalynd Hollingsworth, 12.01 (14^th) | Naturi Robinson, 12.26 (18^th) | Makhia Jarrett, 12.28 (19^th)
100mH Prelim: Sydni McMillan, 13.89q
400m Prelim: Nyah Gore, 54.90 (9^th) | L’Nya Carpenter, 57.45 (17^th)
800m: Lily Schlossberg, 2:14.55 (16^th)
3,000m Steeple: Lindsay Yentz, 10:43.38 (7^th) | Jenna Strange, 10:58.66 (11^th)
10,000m: Alyssa Zack, 37:55.58 (7^th)
Long Jump: Elizabeth Taylor, 5.89m (8^th) | Stephanie Robson, 5.46m (21^st) | L’Nya Carpenter, 5.44m (22^nd) | Skyler Harrelson, 5.35m (25^th)
Shot Put: Naadiya Faison, 14.66m (8^th)
Heptathlon: Tereza Babicka, 4,813 points (9^th)
 
Up Next
The Pirates will be back in action for the final day of competition on Sunday with the weather-delayed pole vault competition kicking things off at 11:30 a.m.