By Pat Gainor, Staff Writer

The Xavier track and field teams collected a royalty of accolades during their stint at the Bellarmine Open in Louisville over the weekend, including a new program record for time in the 60-meter dash.

In their season debut, Xavier’s return to the track was headlined by twelve top-10 finishes and six top-10 program records across both the men’s and women’s squads. Set on an indoor 200 meter banked track, the Musketeers were headlined by the return of All-Big East member and NCAA participant Trevor Nolan. 

Nolan kicked off his season with an 8:28.37 time on the 3,000 meter run, earning the third best time in program history as he rallied to a sixth place finish out of 52 runners. This is his second spot on the program top 10 for the 3,000 meter run, with Nolan holding the number eight spot set last season.

But headlining the event was Charlotte native Laila Hankerson, who made a splash in her collegiate debut as she set the program record for the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.62 seconds and finished with a 25.37 time on the 200-meter dash, good for fourth best in program history.

Among the other high–ranking finishes from this meet was Ashleigh Prugh, a senior who notched the 10th best 3,000-meter run in program history over the meet with her 9:54.68 time. Senior Audrey Bishop finished just two seconds and change away from breaking her career goal of running the 400-meter dash in under a minute. 

“I get nervous when I step into the space, so I sit there for a second and and evaluate how I feel, y’know?” Hankerson said, noting she prefers.  

“I enjoy watching meets, so I watch the field events and stuff… then when I’m sitting on my block, I tell myself ‘You have to remember to push, drive, look straight forward.’ That’s what I’m going through.”

Hankerson’s finish earned her second overall in the women’s 60-meter dash, only behind Louisville’s Olivia Jenkins. Both runners bested the previous Bellarmine Open 60-meter dash record of 7.70 seconds, set on Jan. 20, 2023. The freshman’s split at the 200-meter dash earned a fifth place finish overall in the event.

When asked about goals for the next meet and for the rest of the season, Hankerson said that she “hopes to improve on (her) 200 time from last week. Then (her) goal for the season is to make the podium for the Big East, cause right now for (the 60-meter dash), (she is) number two in the Big East.”

Amid all other results, Xavier’s Madison Rivera picked up a ninth place finish out of 24 participants in the 400-meter dash with her time of 1:01.11. Xavier’s 4×400 “A” squad (Francis, Rivera, MacKinnon, Spruill) finished sixth in the relays with a final time of 4:11.33. Finally, Xavier had four top-10 finishes in the 3,000 meter run by Amy Prugh, Ashleigh Prugh, Myla Toole and Grace Zdankiewicz; Amy Prugh led the way with a third place finish courtesy of a 9:52.82 finish, ranking ninth in school history.

“I think the program is looking up. A lot better finishes this year than what we came out with last year,” said Bishop, who placed eighth in the 400-meter dash at the Mount St. Joseph’s invite on Saturday. 

“I was impressed even at time trials this year — that’s the practice where we pretend like it’s a meet and get good marks — and when we came out at time trials this year, that was the fastest I’ve ever seen the women come out; same for the men, too. We’re on the up,” Bishop continued. 

In addition to Nolan for the men’s squad, Liam Willman picked up a second place finish with a 8.44 time on 60-meter hurdles. The 4×400 “A” squad (Beam, Kamaruts, Avenel, Thimons) finished in sixth place with a 3:27.92 finish overall. Finally,   freshman California native Josh Myers finished his  first collegiate 60-meter dash with a time of 7.06, good enough for sixth in the meet and sixth in program history.

Photos courtesy of Greg Lautzenheizer/Xavier Athletics