COMPLETE RESULTS
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The High Point University men's track & field team got a win from Jesse Cherry in the 10,000-meter and runner-up finishes from Cherry, Josh Morgan and Josh Pelletier while finishing fifth at the Big South Championship at Charleston Southern. Pelletier was named Big South Freshman of the Year and Morgan was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

“Overall I thought we rallied late to be in contention for the top three after a couple of bumps early in the day,” said HPU head coach Mike Esposito. “I'm proud of the way Josh Morgan battled when he was feeling less than 100 percent and I loved the team concept in the 5K. Josh Pelletier gave us a huge throw in the javelin and Justin Conaway came up big to finish fifth in the dash after coming into the meet unseeded.”

Liberty got a convincing team victory with 194 points, well ahead of runner-up Coastal Carolina (117.5). Radford placed third with 100 points, VMI was fourth with 95.5 and HPU and Charleston Southern tied for fifth with 88 points. Gardner-Webb placed seventh with 55 points, Winthrop eighth with 50.5 and UNC Asheville ninth with 28.5.

Pelletier kicked off the meet for HPU with a runner-up finish in the javelin on Thursday. On his third throw, he heaved the javelin 216-5 for a huge career best, finishing behind only Coastal Carolina's Jason Flanagan (219-11).

The Panthers got the bulk of their scoring in the middle- and long-distance events, going 1-2-4 in the 10,000-meter, 2-3-4 in the 5,000-meter and 2-3-6 in the 1,500-meter.

Cherry won the 10,000-meter in 30:13.20 on Thursday evening and cruised to a runner-up finish in the 5,000-meter on Saturday. Also in the 10,000-meter, senior Cole Atkins battled to a runner-up finish in 30:20.70, sophomore Neal Darmody finished fourth in 31:14.60 and sophomore Mike Ali placed eighth in 33:08.34. In the 5,000-meter, Cherry finished second in 15:12.93, steps ahead of Atkins (15:13.28) and Darmody (15:14.08).

Morgan finished second in the 1,500-meter, fourth in the 800-meter and led off HPU's 4x400-meter relay on Saturday despite feeling ill all day. In the 1,500-meter, Morgan closed very strong to catch Coastal Carolina's Kyle Kling, but couldn't get past him in the final steps as Kling finished in 3:52.47 and Morgan finished in 3:52.48. An hour later in the 800-meter, Morgan battled to fourth in 1:53.10 and was once again edged by 0.01, this time by UNC Asheville's Sam Maynard.

Behind Morgan in the 1,500-meter, junior Jevin Monds placed third in 3:54.34 and freshman Dakota Peachee placed sixth in 3:58.58. Peachee made his debut in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday, taking fourth in 9:25.38. Freshman Jacob Smith placed fifth in the steeplechase.

Junior Justin Conaway sprinted to a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter dash in a time of 10.80. The Panthers finished the meet taking seventh in the 4x400-meter relay with the team of Morgan, Sebastien Bonnot, Smith and Josh Cashman.

High Point University hosts the VertKlasse Meeting on Sunday, April 25 at Vert Stadium. The field events begin at 5 p.m. and the running events begin at 6 p.m. The high-energy event is HPU's only home meet of the season.