CLEVELAND, Tenn. (April 5, 2024) – Highlighted by gold-medal performances from Tya Blake and Diana Romero-Barba, the ETSU men's and women's track and field teams totaled five podium finishes in Friday's the opening day of the Flames Invitational from the Ray Conn Sports Complex.
 
Blake registered her second career win in the triple jump as she had a season-best leap of 11.55m. In addition to the triple jump, Blake placed fifth in the 200m with a personal best time of 25.68. Finishing right behind Blake in the 200m was Gabby Walker with a time of 25.80.
 
Romero-Barba collected her fourth career gold medal in the pole vault after posting a personal best and meet record mark of 3.85m. Like she did on her attempts at the 3.50m, 3.60m and 3.80m marks, Romero-Barba cleared her PR on the first attempt to win the event. Her sister, Frania, also set a personal best in the event with a mark of 3.35m for a sixth-place showing.
 
The Blue & Gold had podium finishes in both the men's and women's high jump.
 
Malachi Thomas made his season debut and finished second in the high jump with a mark of 2.00m. Thomas started the day clearing at 1.90m and then had a successful first jump at 1.95. Following back-to-back misses on his first two jumps at the 2.00m height, Thomas came through on his third attempt to earn a silver medal. Cayden Douglas placed fifth with a leap of 1.85m.
 
On the women's side, Maya Murchison also took home silver with a personal best jump of 1.65m. Murchison was the top collegiate athlete in the event as she cleared her jump on the first attempt.
 
Staying on the field, Brent Bell enjoyed a solid showing in Cleveland. Bell recorded his first career podium finish in the shot put with a mark of 14.45m, which placed him third. Earlier in the day, Bell made the finals in the hammer and finished fifth with a mark of 46.31m on his fifth attempt. Logan Wagner finished fifth in the shot put with a mark of 13.85m.
 
On the track, Bonita Gray (4:47.48) and Ansley Archuleta (4:49.39) both set personal bests in women's 1500m, while Sophie Beach (18:10.60) and Karli Townsell (18:24.71) had PRs in the 5000m.

"We had some solid performances in the jumps today led by Tya and Diana, along with Maya on the women's side and Malachi in the men's high jump," said ETSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field George Watts. "Frankly, I was disappointed with the overall performance of the middle and distance groups. We had a couple of personaI bests in the women's 5k and 1500, but nothing to get excited about on the men's side.  Hopefully, we will show up tomorrow and have a complete team effort that we can be happy about.
 
The second and final day of the meet gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m.
 
Click here for full meet results.
 
For more information on Buccaneer men's and women's track and field, visit ETSUBucs.com.