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The High Point University men's track & field team sits in fourth, just 5.5 points out of second, going into the final day of competition at the Big South Championship in Charleston, S.C. During Friday's action, freshman Dakota Peachee took fourth in the steeplechase and senior Josh Morgan qualified for the finals of the 800 and 1,500-meter.

“The main idea of today was to get our runners into finals, and we did that,” said HPU head coach Mike Esposito. “All three of our guys in the 1,500 got through and Josh Morgan made it in both the 1,500 and 800. It was exciting to see Dakota almost make the podium in his first collegiate steeplechase and also good to see Jacob Smith back racing tonight.”

After two days of competition, Liberty leads with 87 points, Coastal Carolina ranks second with 46.5, VMI is third with 44.5 and High Point University ranks fourth with 41 points. Behind HPU, Radford is fifth (35 points), Charleston Southern sixth (24), Winthrop seventh (15), Gardner-Webb eighth (14) and UNC Asheville ninth (five).

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase final, Peachee was in contention for second or third, but could not close the gap on the final lap. It was his debut steeplechase and he finished fourth in 9:25.38. Freshman Jacob Smith placed fifth in 9:34.69, just holding off Liberty's Kyle Powers.

Morgan, Peachee and junior Jevin Monds all qualified for the final of the 1,500-meter. Monds was in the first qualifying heat and cruised to a time of 4:00.75. Morgan and Peachee were in the second heat and got automatic qualifiers as well, finishing in 3:59.28 and 3:59.45, respectively.

Later in the afternoon, Morgan came back in the 800-meter and finished second in his heat, qualifying for the final with a time of 1:54.12. Senior Josh Cashman took sixth in the same heat in 1:57.82 and junior Corey Grove placed fourth in his heat in 1:57.12.

Also in qualifying, junior Justin Conaway finished the 100-meter dash in 10.75 to make Saturday's final. He also ran the 200-meter, placing sixth in his preliminary heat. Sophomore Sebastien Bonnot placed 11th in the preliminaries of the 400-meter in a time of 51.68.

“It was huge to have Justin advance in the dash,” said Esposito. “The third through ninth qualifiers are separated by just 0.11, so anything can happen in that event.”

The Panthers got big points in Thursday's finals, as HPU went 1-2-4 in the 10,000-meter and freshman Josh Pelletier placed second in the javelin. In the 10,000-meter, seniors Jesse Cherry and Cole Atkins placed first and second and Neal Darmody took fourth. All three will run the 5,000-meter on Saturday

Saturday's competition kicks off with the pole vault at 11 a.m. Junior TJ Brancaccio ranks second in that event.