COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Georgia Southern track and field team had another solid showing in its return to the University of South Carolina over the weekend highlighted once again by Merabu Nagwandala and Scovia Ayikoru at the Carolina Challenge.
 
Nagwandala came up just short of her own Georgia Southern indoor 5000m record in a fifth-place effort with a time of 17:46.65. The sophomore previously broke the record in her last trip to South Carolina two weeks ago at the Gamecock opener with a time of 17:46.59.
 
Ayikoru narrowly missed breaking the school indoor 200m record by 0.03 with her new personal-best time of 24.36 in a ninth-place finish. She is now second all-time on the GS indoor list behind star runner Nicole Brown's 24.33 mark set in 2005.
 
Sprints: Zykeria Williams and Aris Hubbard both advanced through the 60m dash qualifying round with a third and eighth-place finish respectively. Despite running a new personal-best time of 7.74 in the preliminary round, Williams did not qualify for the finals coming in at 15^th.
 
Middle/Hurdles: Ayikoru also placed ninth in the 400m to pace all Eagles with a PR time of 55.46. Ellunde Montgomery took 19^th out of 73 runners in the 800m with a time of 2:20.37. The only hurdler was Williams who turned in an 8:88 in the 60m hurdle prelims.
 
Distance: In addition to Nagwandala, Mattie Harris paced the Eagles in the 3000m with a 26^th place finish with a time of 10:57.13.
 
Jumps:  Two Eagles competed in the long jump with Meagan Lynch taking eighth out of 50 jumpers with a leap of 17-8 ¾. Jakeeyah Seymour also finished respectably at 12^th with an indoor PR of 17-4 ¾.
 
Throws: Siddeeqa Abdurrahman led all Georgia Southern throwers with 14^th place showing in the weight throw with a toss of 43-1 out of 54 athletes. Osjalee Glenn threw her best throw in the shot put this season with a heave of 35-6 ¾ to place 20^th. Georgia Southern throws coach Brittany Cox was also in action in the women's shot put invitational, winning the event with a throw of 50-10 ¼ as an unattached competitor.
 
What head coach Kelly Carter had to say:
"Today was a great day for Eagle nation. We had some great performances along with some personal bests and one just shy of a school record. Our ladies are getting better each week as we lead into conference. I am very excited for what is to come."
 
 Full results can be found here.
 
Up Next:
The team will enjoy a week of rest before hitting the road to Birmingham, Alabama, for its final regular season meet at the Samford Invite Feb. 14.