On Friday, Jan. 20, the Alabama track and field team traveled to Birmingham and performed stunning events in the Samford Invitational. Along with 29 top-five finishers there were nine meet records broken.   

Two of those records came from one runner, junior Amari Brown. With her 7.33-second 60-meter run, Brown entered the eighth spot on the list of Alabama’s women all-time. Later in the day, Brown broke her second record with a 23.69 in the 200.  

 “I’m very proud of the team’‘s performance today,” head coach Dan Waters said. “We had several top finishes and a number of our athletes won their respective event.”   

The Crimson Tide had 15 event wins, with the women taking nine of those and the men bringing home six.  

The day kicked off with a rolling start. Graduate students Chelsea Igberaese, Taylor Gorum and junior Samantha Kunza finished in the top three spots for the women’s weight throw.  

Junior Jami Reed broke the meet record with her first-place win in the women’s mile with a clocked time of 4:40.04.  

Junior Matthew Weaver broke the meet record in the men’s 200 final with a 21.29 finish. Junior Elka Machan broke the women’s 3,000 meet record as well.

Sophomores Corde Long, Chris Robinson and freshman Patrick Daves all finished in the top-five of the men’s 60-meter hurdles. In the men’s weight throw, senior Bobby Colantonio Jr. and freshman Ruben Banks finished first and second. 

“We have a great opportunity to learn from today and carry this momentum with us into next week’s meet at Clemson where the competition is only going to get stronger,” Waters said. 

The track season continues next weekend with a split up. Part of the team will travel to Boston, Massachusetts, for the John Thomas Terrier Class on Jan. 27-28. The other part of the team will travel to Clemson, South Carolina, to take part in the Bob Pollock Invitational.