LEXINGTON, Va. – Samford University's track and field team competed in Lexington, Virginia at the Southern Conference Indoor Championships this weekend. The meet took place over two days with many of the finals taking place on Sunday.
 
Samford's women's team took home their fourth consecutive conference indoor championship. The men fell just short of a championship, finishing second to Western Carolina.
 
The meet started off well for the Bulldogs when senior Selena Popp won her third consecutive conference championship in the pentathlon event on Saturday. Popp took first place in both the long jump and high jump and was able to amass 3,558 points over all five events to take first place.
 
The heptathlon event saw Thomas Ozburn from Samford finish second overall after putting up a score of 4,545 points. Bulldogs Ty Kimberlin and Hunter Schlatter finished fifth and sixth with scores of 3,950 and 3,914.
 
The women's long jump finals were on Saturday. Junior Erin Hines and Selena Popp both collected points for the Samford women. Hines finished with 5.74 meter distance, earning her second overall and eight points. Popp finished in third with a 5.73 meter distance and earned Samford six points. For the men, two Bulldogs each placed in the top eight of the men's long jump. Junior Jon Waarvik and freshman Justin Stuckey earned a total of nine points toward the Samford men's team total. Waarvik finished fourth after a 6.86 meter distance and Stuckey finished fifth overall after a 6.78 meter distance.
 
Kimberlin also competed in the men's triple jump, finishing fourth overall after putting up a long distance of 14.24 meters and earned five points for the Samford men's team. In the women's event, Morayo Bhadmos took home the championship after a 12.32 meter distance gave Samford another ten points.
 
In the finals of the men's shot put, Samford's Matt Cahoon placed seventh overall and gave the men's team two points with his performance. Cahoon had a final long distance of 14.86 meters in the event. On the women's side of the event, Samford's Maggie Johnston and Tatianna Taylor each placed and earned points. Taylor placed third after throwing for 13.38 meters and the senior earned six points. Johnston, a junior, placed fourth with a thrown distance of 13.36 meters and was able to earn five more points for the Bulldogs.
 
Both Karisa Nelson and Mary-Grace Strozier advanced to the finals of the women's mile run. Nelson won her second consecutive event on Sunday in record fashion after posting a Southern Conference record mile time of 4:38.23, beating out her former record time of 4:43.96 from a year ago. Strozier also placed in the event at seventh with a time of 4:55.90. Nelson and Strozier earned the women's team 12 total points in the event.
 
Sarah Sanford advanced from the preliminaries of the 60 meter hurdles on Saturday to the finals on Sunday. The senior competed in the final's on Sunday and placed third after a 8.78 second time and gave the Bulldogs six more points. Four Bulldogs competed and dominated the finals of the men's 60-meter hurdles. Titus Moore, Jack McHugh, and Emmanuel Tait swept the podium in the event, placing first, second, and third. Michael McMahan placed sixth in the event, giving the Bulldogs 27 total points from the event.
Hannah Lueders placed to make the finals of the 60-meter dash in the preliminaries and ultimately took home fifth overall. Lueders placed with an 7.72 second time and earned four points toward the team total. Emmanuel Tait and Titus Moore competed in the final of the men's event and continued a successful weekend. Tait finished second with a 6.82 second time, earning eight points and Moore finished seventh with a 7.07 second time, earning two points.
 
Hugh Duggan continued the tradition of Samford men's pole vault champions. The junior recorded a 5.00 meter vault to finish in first place. Duggan's victory makes it five straight men's pole vault titles for the Bulldogs.
 
The women's final 400 meter run featured two Bulldogs in Vada Samuels and Rachel Dixon. Samuels placed fifth with a time of 57.76 seconds and Dixon placed eighth after a time of 58.49 seconds. Samuels earned Samford four points and Dixon earned one point. Warren Fitzpatrick and Jordan Woodbine competed in the final of the men's event. Fitzpatrick placed fifth with a time of 50.00 seconds and earned four points. Woodbine finished after 50.23 seconds and three points going to the men's team.
 
Karisa Nelson starred again in the women's 800 meter run where she once again broke a SoCon record time and won the event. Nelson posted a time of 2:06.10 to earn the championship and the ten points. Shian Mallory also competed in the finals of the 800 meter run, getting a fourth place finish and five more points for the Bulldogs. Samford's men also earned points in the 800-meter run. Ben Garner and Seth Corey placed fifth and sixth with times of 1:55.85 and 1:57.08.
 
Hannah Lueders placed second overall in the 200 meter dash for Samford after a 24.69 second time and eight more points toward the Samford women's total. Emmanuel Tait took the fifth place finish in the 200 meter dash on the men's side after a 22.04 second time.
 
The women's high jump finals saw Bulldogs in half of the final eight on Saturday. Selena Popp won her second SoCon Indoor Championship of the day, taking first with a jump of 1.70 meters. Sophomore Tally Wilson, junior Charlotte Krause, and freshman Megan Elliot took fourth, fifth, and sixth place overall In the event. All four of the Bulldogs earned a total of 22 points toward the Samford women's point total. The men's high jump finals were also dominated by the Bulldogs. Sophomore Matt Cahoon took home the championship while freshman Justin Stuckey took home the silver in the event.
 
Samford junior Dillon Dean placed eighth in the finals of the 5,000 meter race with a time of 14:54.13. Dean was the highest finishing Bulldog as Ben Bryant and Brad Cheek followed behind him at twelfth and thirteenth with times of 15:18.11 and 15:20.64.
 
Dean also placed seventh overall in the men's 3000 meter race on Saturday of the indoor championships. Dean finished with an overall time of 8:40.66 minutes and earned two points for the Samford men's total.
 
Both 4000 meter distance medley relays were the final two events on Saturday. The Samford women's team, run by Shian Mallory, Lauren Beard, Rachel Dixon, and Mary-Grace Strozier finished second overall with a time of 12:04.67. The second place finish earned the Samford women's team eight points. In the men's relay, Ben Garner, Michael McMahan, Jake Maddox, and Owen Bailey turned in a 10:10.81 finish that earned them third overall and six total points.
 
The final two events on Sunday were each of the men's and women's 4 x 400 meter relays. Samford's women capped off their championship winning weekend with a first place finish and a 3:50.90 time to secure the overall team championship. Samford's men's relay also put in a podium finish, placing third in the event with a 3:20.13 time.
 
Samford's Selena Popp once again won the Most Outstanding Athlete award on the women's side. Popp won the award in 2018 as well.
 
Bekah Pfitzer was named by the conference as the winner of the Women's Pinnacle Award, awarded to the athlete with the highest GPA on the championship-winning team.
 
The NCAA will announce the field for the Division I Track and Field Championships on Tuesday, February 26^th.
 
For all news and results from the Samford University track and field program, follow @SamfordXC_TF on Twitter and @samfordxctf on Instagram.