The Winthrop track and field teams will host the Winthrop Invitational on April 17-18 at the Irwin Belk Track & Field Complex in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The event will begin Friday with the men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon, followed by a senior recognition ceremony scheduled for Saturday at 1:00 p.m. after the men’s 4x100m relay.
The invitational is set to feature athletes from several schools including Belmont Abbey, Bob Jones, Coker, Columbia (S.C.), Gardner-Webb, High Point, Lander, Mars Hill, Montreat, Queens, USC Aiken, and Winthrop. Athletes and spectators are advised to park at Winthrop Coliseum due to other events such as the Come See Me festival as well as home games for women’s lacrosse and men’s baseball taking place on campus.
This competition marks the first full-team meet since the VertKlasse Meeting earlier in April for most of the Eagles’ roster. Select athletes recently competed at the Duke Invitational on April 10-11 where Anna Conrad achieved a time of 17:22.22 in the women’s 5000 meters—placing her third all-time in school history—and Mitchell Hill opened his outdoor season with a time of 1:53.15 in the men’s 800 meters.
The Eagles are under new leadership this season with Raffael Craig serving as head coach for his first year at Winthrop. The men’s squad returns twenty-five athletes while adding ten newcomers; meanwhile, sixteen returnees join thirteen new additions on the women’s team.
Winthrop Athletics has also announced initiatives such as The Eagle Club—its official fundraising arm—and WIN: Winthrop’s Impact Network philanthropic society to support its NCAA Division I programs and nearly three hundred student-athletes.
