BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford men's and women's track and field team competed the past two days at the Bulldog Invite on Friday and the Bulldog Open today at the Birmingham Crossplex. Samford athletes littered the leaderboards with top-three finishes as the Dogs prepare for the Southern Conference Indoor Championships.

The first high finish of the day on Friday game from Lindsey Havens in the women's pole vault. She came in third as she set a personal best height of 3.82 meters. On the men's side of the vault, reigning SoCon Athlete of the Week Brenden Vanderpool came in first place with a height of 5.27 meters followed by his teammate Carter Ellis who took second at 5.12m. Ellison Chadwick dominated the field in the women's long jump, reaching 5.91 meters while teammates Kiersten Bell and Brooklyn Kirksey rounded out the top five. Samuel Werner came in second in the men's long jump while Benjamin Thomason took fourth for the Dogs. In the triple jump, Ian Jones cleared the field by almost a meter with a jump of 14.88 meters. Dorsey Parker won the women's high jump at 1.66 meters while the best performance of the day from the field unit came from Jaggerd Moore in the men's high jump who set the 31st-best mark in the nation and third-best in school history with a jump of 2.14 meters.

The runners got going with the women's 5k where the trio of Sinkenesh Parker, Edie Smith, and Macie Pfeuffer finished 2-4 as they all set personal bests in the event. Arthur Langley won the 5k on the men's side and was followed closely by his teammate Andrew McGinnis. Winning nearly every race he has been in during his collegiate career, Bradley Franklin won the 60m final with a time of 6.82 seconds. Sam Forte had a strong second-place showing in the men's 60m hurdles setting a personal best of 8.11 seconds. Ayden Drake took third place for the Bulldogs in the women's 400m while Adeline Haisch won easily in the women's 800m. Bella Edwards and Felicity Hamilton each set PR's in the women's 3k as Edwards took first and Hamilton came in third. The running events on Friday were closed out with the Samford women's 4x400 team beating the field by four seconds to take the win.

After competing on Friday, Samford put out an extremely limited field in the Bulldog Open today. After winning the 60m yesterday, Franklin took home another victory in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.84. The Bulldogs had a handful of athletes in the men's mile led by the trio of Caleb Scheffler, Stephen Jones, and Reese Bell who took the podium positions with personal best times. 

Up next, Bradley Franklin will head to the USA Indoor Championship this weekend in Staten Island in an attempt to qualify for nationals in the sprint hurdles. For the rest of the group, they prepare for the Southern Conference Indoor Championships which take place in Lexington, Virginia on Feb. 28 & March 1.

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