LYNCHBURG, Va. – UNCW women's track and field junior Bailey Tart captured first place in pole vault at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational, clearing 3.75 meters (12-3 1/2) to tie for the second-best indoor pole vault in program history.

"We're continuing to challenge the team to take what they're doing in practice into the competitions," head coach Jeff Klaves said. "We establish our daily routines and habits to be competitive in the competitions with the same reps and effort we're giving at practice. Performances like Bailey Tart's don't just happen. We've seen her continue to string along some great sessions clearing some big bars at practice. We believe she was capable of this performance and this was a meet where it happened and she achieved it."

Tart tied Ashley Wildhaber (2003) for second all-time in program history. Coming into the meet, Tart was third all-time in the program's indoor history, pole vaulting 3.71 meters (12-2) last season at the VMI Invitational.  

In the 300-meter dash, senior sprinter Nasiah Ferguson nearly bested her program record of 39.33 seconds, finishing fourth out of 52 competitors. Ferguson ran 39.60, the third fastest time in program history.

"Nasiah had a great individual effort in the 300-meter dash today. That metric is a key point of emphasis for our long sprints program. More importantly, we're continuing to see the leadership from Nasiah, one of our upperclassmen, to continue to guide the mentality that we want to have as we approach every meet."

The 4x400-meter relay ran 3 minutes, 53.09 seconds, reaching the program's relay record book for the fourth time this season. The Seahawks relay squad of Ferguson, Mackenzie Townsend, Grace Guilford and Ella Jane Osada posted the 10th-fastest time in program history.

In the 1000-meter run, sophomore Claire Carmichael posted a collegiate best of 3:07.46, improving her time by more than four seconds.

"Claire, not only using rep-by-rep, but day-by-day at our two-day, she took what she learned in her open event on Friday and led to a collegiate best in the 1,000m run today. She continues to be extremely coachable."

We want to keep taking advantage of every opportunity. We came here to this invitationals and we are leaving better with some key takeaways to help us go into next week at the conference championships. Great momentum and mindset going into our championship meet next week."

The Seahawks head to Virginia Beach, Va. for the CAA Indoor Championships from Feb. 26-27.

UNCW Results | Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational | Feb. 14-15, 2025
Event Win
Program Top 10
Collegiate Best