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Longwood outdoor track put together a solid start to the outdoor season on Friday at the Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond. And one Farmville resident helped lead the way. 

Saad Khan blazed his way to a fifth-place finish in the men’s 5,000 meter race, recording a personal best with a time of 15:36:93. That mark for the Farmville senior, who graduated from Prince Edward County High, is the sixth-fastest outdoor time in Longwood history.

“Today was a step forward for our program and how we wanted to start our outdoor campaign,” said Longwood Head Cross Country & Track Coach Brooke Craig. “PRs, school records and best season openers across the board. We have a race heavy month ahead, and the team is up to the challenge to Raise the Standard.”

The Lancers saw a variety of runners finish inside the top 10 in multiple events, with freshman Sophie Farley again having a standout performance.

Farley finished fourth in the women’s 800m, and she finished sixth in the 1,500m in an impressive double. 

Among the 62 runners in the women’s 800m, Farley ripped off a 2:13.05 that was only one second off the winning time to finish fourth. She shaved off 11 seconds of the team’s 800m outdoor record in the process.

She then powered through a 4:33.43 in the women’s 1,500 to finish sixth, with her time shattering the team’s previous 1,500m outdoor record by 19 seconds.

“Overall this was a huge step forward for the program,” said assistant coach—head of sprints, jumps and hurdles Rob Gritzer. “It’s still early in the season, so to see marks like this from a young group already is a great sign. We’ve got some little things to clean up, but overall this is exactly where we need to be at this point if we want to accomplish the goals we set back in the fall.”

More Longwood team members finish high

Kirsten Morley also crushed the program’s outdoor 5,000m record with an 18:10.40 in the women’s seeded 5,000m race. She shattered the record by 29 seconds.

Keller and Pinder finished back-to-back in the women’s 5,000m unseeded race, with Keller’s time of 18:38.58 two seconds ahead of her teammate at 18:40.13. Keller’s time also broke the old outdoor record by a second.

Khan, meanwhile, crushed it for a personal best in the men’s 5,000m unseeded race with a 15:36.93 that was the sixth-fastest outdoor time in team history.

Chris Smith raced his way into the team’s outdoor record books with a 1:56.28 in the men’s 800m. He finished eighth, and he broke the program record by six-tenths of a second. 

Tristan Duplissey finished 10th, meanwhile, in the men’s 400m hurdles with a time of 1:00.50.

In the men’s triple jump, Matthew Fitzner finished fourth with a best jump of 13.70m, and he was ninth in the long jump with a 6.46m effort. Both marks broke the outdoor records he set last season.

The men’s 4x100m relay team also broke the team record with a time of 42.02. Cullen Carter broke the men’s 200m record as well with a 22.44, and Ayden Stewart was one-hundredth of a second from breaking the 400m record he set last year with a 49.53.

Liliana Arevalo broke her own program outdoor record in the women’s 400m with a 1:00.06, shaving six-tenths of a second off. Mayson Jenkins’ time of 1:00.41 would have broken the record as well.