McArthur Breaks Olympian Gowda's UNC Record At Gamecock Inaugural

Saturday, January 19

Columbia, SC

9 A.M.

North Carolina

Gamecock Inaugural

Daniel McArthur
shot put
University of North Carolina Track and Field
Raleigh Relays
N.C. State University
Paul Derr Track
Raleigh, NC
Friday, March 30, 2018

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

McArthur Breaks Olympian Gowda's UNC Record At Gamecock Inaugural

January 19, 2019 | Track & Field

Results

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Daniel McArthur, a redshirt-sophomore thrower from Mooresville, N.C., made Carolina history on Saturday at South Carolina's Gamecock Inaugural in Columbia, S.C. Although injury forced him to redshirt the 2018 indoor season, McArthur crushed his career best in the shot put by nearly five feet. His mark of 64-10 1/2 (19.22m) is the best in the history of Carolina track & field and breaks a 14-year-old school record (64-3 3/4) originally set by four-time Olympian Vikas Gowda during his time at UNC.

"Once I saw the shot put hit, I knew it was a school record," McArthur said. "It feels great. I told Coach Meaders when I came to Carolina that my goal was to break records because when I was in high school, I told my coaches the same thing — I'm going to break every record. So it's nice to make do on what I told Coach Meaders."

With the sixth-best mark in the nation, it's safe to say McArthur is back and better than ever.

"For me, I'm finding my way back from my past injury," McArthur said. "My freshman year, I was the number one freshman in the nation and my injury took a lot away, but to hit a throw that puts me in the top 10 in the nation, I really feel like I'm back. No injury is going to stop me or the talent that God's given me. Hopefully, I'll just keep progressing each meet like I did my freshman year and I just get more consistent."

"He did a great job," head coach Harlis Meaders said. "Daniel has been putting some things together in practice and we knew those kind of distances were possible. It was just being patient enough to let them come out. We're not surprised because we knew it was there, but we are glad to get them in competition."

The North Carolina track & field teams wrapped up the weekend with an impressive list of results. The 17 Tar Heels who made the trip combined for three spots in the Carolina record books, eight ACC qualifying marks, seven career bests and 13 season bests. Eleven Tar Heels joined McArthur for day two and collected their own personal accolades on Saturday.

On the women's side, senior Anna Eaton inched her way closer to the No. 2 spot in UNC history with yet another personal-best height of 13-7 1/4 (4.15m) to win the women's pole vault invite title.

"As a team, Carolina track & field is definitely headed up," McArthur said. "We have great freshman and we have a really solid team that's just finding it's way."

"Overall, I think it was a great weekend over the two days that we were here at South Carolina," Meaders said. "We had individual champions in four events and we had a number of kids who hit either seasonal bests or lifetime bests so I'm really excited about the way the kids performed this weekend. We're looking forward to next weekend at Clemson. We'll be competing a larger entourage and hopefully we'll continue to build upon the first two meets of the season."

OTHER GAMECOCK INAUGURAL HIGHLIGHTS
Men
• Draven Crist, a redshirt-junior from Burlington, N.C., followed up his career-best performance at the Dick Taylor Carolina Cup on Jan. 12 with a first-place finish and a height of 6-11 3/4 (2.13m), another ACC qualifying mark.
• Junior pole vaulter Liam Dixon, also from Mooresville, N.C., added his name to the list of ACC Indoor Championship qualifiers with his lifetime-best performance on Saturday. His mark of 16-0 3/4 (4.90m) earned his a third-place finish in the men's pole vault invite.
• A sophomore from Roxboro, N.C., Dontavian Smith became the 12th Tar Heel to qualify for ACC Indoors with his 200-meter dash invite time of 21.61, a new personal record.
• A native of Houston, Texas, sophomore Josh Mukoro set a new indoor personal record in the men's 400, clocking 50.30 on Friday.
• Drew Pedersen, a senior from Apex, N.C., won Friday's men's open pole vault competition with a season best 15-5 (4.70m).

Women
• Alex Cooke, a graduate student from Lowgap, N.C., won the women's weight throw invite with another ACC qualifying mark of 63-9 1/2 (19.44m).
• Senior Kristin Hall (Powder Springs, Ga.) ran a personal-best 200 time of 25.82 on Saturday.
• Anna Keefer, a sophomore from St. Michael Albertville, Minn., followed up her ACC-qualifying prelim performance (7.44) in the women's 60-meter dash with a third-place finish (7.55) in Saturday's final.
• Sophomore Jill Shippee, a native of Clifton Park, N.Y., followed right behind teammate Cooke with a throw of 61-9 (18.82m) to finish second in the women's weight throw.

UP NEXT: Carolina heads back to the state of South Carolina but this time to Clemson for the annual Tiger Paw Invitational from Jan. 25-26. Competition is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25 with Saturday's events kicking off at 9 a.m.