MYRTLE BEACH, Sc. – The Millersville Marauders opened their outdoor track and field season with a third-place finish at the Myrtle Beach Challenge. 'Ville recorded a team score of 76, finishing 52 points behind Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne who won the meet with a total score of 128.
 
The Marauders sat in first place with 46 points at the conclusion of day one but dropped off in day two of the meet. Millersville again dominated in the field events scoring 47% of their points (36 of 76) in the hammer throw, shot put, and pole vault.
 
MEET HIGHLIGHTS

• Aliyah Striver picked up right where she left off at last month's PSAC Indoor Championship, as she won two events. Striver won both the shot put with an NCAA mark (45-11 ¾) and hammer throw (174-2) as she set a new PR in the latter. Her hammer throw distance is good for tor the fifth best mark in program history.
• Darian Hauf continued her standout freshman season with another pole vault win, this time with a height of 11-11 ¾. That mark is good for a new school record in the outdoor season, breaking Erin Harman's record of 11-10 from 2017. Hauf now owns the program record for both the indoor and outdoor pole vault. Megan Malecki finished fourth in the event with a height of 10-0.
• Ashlyn Hickey took second in the 800-meter (2:34.17) finishing a fraction of a second behind Ozioma Scott of Howard.
• Maddy Downs took eighth in the hammer (138-7) and 14^th in the shot put with a distance of 32-6 ¼.
• A trio of Marauders took top-15 finishes in the 5,000-meter as Morgan Janiuk (fourth – 18:06.65) Hannah Sweda (10^th – 19:41.75) and Jenna Dumbrowsky (13^th – 20:01.60) as had strong performances.
• Kait Leister took fourth in the 10,000 as she finished in 42:59.54.
• Another 'Ville trio finished in the top-15 of the javelin throw. Cassie Sharrow led the way in seventh with a mark of 132-1. Kandice Liebl took ninth (129-6) while Mikaela Wolf (110-4) finished in 11^th.
• The 4x200 relay team took fifth place as they clocked in at 1:48.73 as the Marauders set a program record in the race. The group consisted of Julia Fallows, Mia Carson, Arianna Kouakou, and Emma Elwell.
• Click here for full results.

REACTION FROM HEAD COACH ANDY YOUNG:
On the start of the outdoor season: "The weather was a big part of this meet. Crazy wind gusts, rain and temps dropping about 30 degrees today during the meet. Despite that we had some really good performances over the two days."

UP NEXT
The Marauder are back in action on Saturday, April 2, as the team will host the Millersville Metrics at Biemesderfer Stadium. First events are set for 9:30 a.m. This is the first of two home events on the schedule for the Marauders, as Millersville will also host the PSAC Championships, which begin on March 12.