Peter Holland Jr./ Staff Writer
For the second straight week, FIU’s track and field team returned to University of Miami. But this time to compete for the Hurricane Twilight Invitational on Friday, March 25 at Cobb Stadium. With tough competitors from University of Miami, Louisiana State University, University and Cincinnati and Florida Atlantic University also participated in this meet. Despite LSU dominated majority of the competition, the Panthers made a personal record and finished in the top three in some of the events.
On the Women’s side, freshman Clarissa Cutliff and Miriam Pierre, once again stood out for the Panthers in the high jump. Cutliff finished second in the high jump with a mark 1.78 meters. This would be a personal record for the Orlando native.
“It was great, I set a new PR for myself, and setting a new school freshman record, it was very good indeed,” Cutcliff said.
Senior Miriam Pierre won the silver medal in the discus throws, scoring a mark of 43.86 meters.
On the Men’s side, the Panthers completely dominated the 100-meter dash. Former FIU football player Wilkinson Myrtil made his debut for the track and field team and finished first place with the time of 10.60 seconds. Right behind him was fellow freshman Samuel Vrinios who took third with a time of 11.25 seconds.
“Overall I’m satisfied coming out,” said Myrtil of his track debut. “[I’ve been running] for three years, and did what I set out to do and got the job done.”
The men’s relay team, consisting of Myrtil, redshirt junior Alton Elephant, junior James Jones and sophomore Brian Oliver, finished in second place in the 4×100-meter relay with the time of 40.71 seconds. FIU also took third in the 4×400 relay with the team of freshman Vinton Lewis, freshman Samuel Vrinios, senior Jamal Dorvilier and sophomore Christian Williams. They finished with the time of 3:33.29 seconds. During the high jump, Williams placed third with the result of 2.00 meters. Also senior Luka Mustafic earned bronze in the shot put with a mark of 16.64 meters.
Head Coach Ryan Heberling felt pleased on the performance by his track team going against talents from power five conferences. Yet, didn’t want his team to put too much effort on this past meet, even though it’s something he wants to improve on. He rather focus on the next meet coming up, which is the Pepsi Florida Relays.
“I felt pretty good, some freshman did pretty well, we didn’t compete everybody, we got Florida Relays coming up next week, so we try to put a priority on the relays. I think the hardest thing with coming to UM is that doesn’t really feel like we’re at a meet. Being that it feels more like a home competition. I think we need to work on taking every opportunity, putting full effort, and taking full advantage of what we have even though it’s a local meet.”
The Panthers will now focus on the next coming meet on Friday, April 1. They will be traveling to Gainesville, Fla., to participate in the Pepsi Florida Relays.
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