MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. --- The Golden Eagle track & field team wrapped a successful opening weekend to the 2023 outdoor season on Saturday, placing fourth in the Myrtle Beach Collegiate Challenge. Clarion recorded 95 team points at the event. 

Shelly Jones blew past her previous PR in the outdoor Shot Put and moved herself higher on the program's all-time performance list in the event, winning the event with a mark of 13.30m on Saturday. The senior had previously thrown the outdoor shot a distance of 12.98m but far outpaced that distance today, allowing her to improve from fourth on the program's top-five list to third. She jumped Allyson Cress, who threw a 13.05m in 2011. 

Jones and Emma Pesicka continued the excellence in the throwing events, with the duo taking the top two spots in the Discus. Pesicka paced the field in the event with a throw of 37.77m, while Jones placed second with a mark of 37.65m.  

Elsewhere in the field, Jenna Uncapher got the jumping portion of her outdoor season off to a good start, with the senior taking sixth in the High Jump. Uncapher cleared the bar at a height of 1.53m. She was also part of a good day on the track, joining Leah Perry in the finals of the 100H. Perry was the faster of the two, finishing with a time of 16.03 to place fourth out of eight. Uncapher was just behind her in fifth place with a time of 16.19. Perry's time represented a new PR and was an improvement of three-tenths of a second from yesterday's preliminary heat. 

The other top performance in the jumping events came courtesy of Delaney Beard. Beard came up just short of tying her PR in the outdoor Triple Jump, placing fourth in the field with a mark of 11.27m.  

In the distance events, the Golden Eagles dominated the top of the field in the 3000m Steeplechase, with Clarion runners finishing 1-2-3 atop the field. Senior Abby Sullivan, a veteran of the long-distance obstacle race, broke the tape with a time of 12:07.56. She was followed by freshman Addie LaBombard, who finished in a time of 12:24.00, and junior Autumn Pettinato, who crossed the line in 12:33.14.  

Elsewhere, Mackenzie Carver was among the fastest non-Division I athletes to compete in the 800m, taking seventh overall in the field with a time of 2:22.06. Alderson Broaddus's Layla James was the only Division II athlete to top Carver. Emily McDonnell was not far behind her, finishing in a time of 2:25.13.