Carolina Heads to Aggie and Hurricane Invitationals

Friday, April 12

Coral Gables, FL

12 P.M.

North Carolina

Hurricane Alumni Invitational

Ryan Saint-Germain

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

April 11, 2019 | Track & Field

Aggie Schedule Hurricane Schedule Watch (Hurricane)Live Results (Aggie)Live Results (Hurricane)

GREENSBORO, N.C. / CORAL GABLES, Fla. - North Carolina track and field will split another weekend of the 2019 outdoor season, this time competing at North Carolina A&T's Aggie Invitational and the University of Miami's Hurricane Alumni Invitational.

"I think we're starting to see the level of performances get better as we reach the Championship portion of the season," head coach Harlis Meaders said. "The competitions from this point on will all be elite level competitions. The University of Miami has an excellent program so we're expecting a great field of competition down there. I think teams across the country as starting to sharpen and getting ready for some peak-level performances as they taper and get ready for the conference championships."

The Aggie Invitational will be held at the Irwin Belk Track in Greensboro, N.C. with competition scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Friday and at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The Hurricane Alumni Invitational will be hosted at Cobb Stadium in Coral Gables, Fla. Friday's events kick off with the combined events at 11 a.m. and the javelin at 12 p.m., and Saturday resumes with combined events at 9:30 a.m. and the men's discus at 2 p.m.

"I'm really happy with the progress our kids have made thus far," Meaders said. "I don't think we've seen our best yet, but I think as we rest our student-athletes and get them ready for this part of the season, we should see our performances continue to improve."

HOW TO FOLLOW
A full schedule of events and a link to live results are available at GoHeels.com.

Fans can also follow @unctrack_field on Twitter and Instagram for updates throughout the meet. UNC Track & Field is also on Facebook. A recap of performances and results will be posted on GoHeels.com following the conclusion of each day of competition.

The Hurricane Alumni Invitational will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra beginning at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Aggie Invitational
Schedule | Live Results

Hurricane Alumni Invitational
Schedule | Live Results | Live Stream

LAST TIME OUT
The North Carolina track and field programs faced the Duke Blue Devils in a head-to-head Battle of the Blues on Saturday.

The Tar Heels collected eight personal bests across a variety of events and 22 event wins over the course of the meet.

Jill Shippee, a sophomore from Clifton Park, N.Y., headlined the Tar Heel performances after extending her own school record in the women's hammer throw by 2.44 meters with a mark of 220-1 (67.09 meters).

Shippee's performance marks the fourth time in her career that the New York native has set the UNC women's hammer record. Just one week prior at the Raleigh Relays, she threw 212-1 (64.65 meters) after throwing 210-6 (64.16 meters) at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships in June and 207-4 (63.19 meters) at the Virginia Challenge in April.

The sophomore is currently first in the ACC, second in the East Region and fifth in the NCAA. Shippee also earned her first-ever ACC Women's Field Performer of the Week honors for her Battle of the Blues performance.

On the track, sophomore Anna Keefer collected three of the 22 trophies in the women's long jump, 100-meter and 200-meter competitions. Keefer (St. Michael Albertville, Minn.) won the women's long jump with a season-best mark of 20-0 ¼ (6.10 meters). She also won the women's 100 meters with a time of 11.62 seconds and the women's 200 meters with a time of 23.92, both of which bested the ACC Outdoor Championship qualifying standard.

The Tar Heels fell to the Blue Devils in the final events of the competition. The final scores were 75-79 in the women's competition and 73-80 in the men's.

IN THE RANKINGS
North Carolina holds 14 top-five times/marks in the ACC, 10 top-20 times/marks in the NCAA East Region and 11 top-50 times/marks in NCAA Division I outdoor competition. Nicole Greene is currently tied for second in the nation in the women's high jump and Jill Shippee ranks fifth in the women's hammer throw.