VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. –  Mason secured the team leads on both the women’s and men’s side after the first day of the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track Championships Friday at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
 
The Patriots women’s team scored 41 points to take lead over second-place Massachusetts, who finished the day with 31 points. Dayton is third with 26 points. Mason’s lead came from medal performances by Amber Askelson, who won gold with a pole vault of 3.77 meters, Abigail Weening’s silver in the Pentathlon, with 3,557 points, and Kate O’Neill’s bronze run in the 5,000 meters, clocking in at 16:59.31
 
The Mason men tallied 59 points, just a scant two points ahead of second-place Rhode Island’s 57. Loyola Chicago is in third with 22 points. Leading the medal performances for the Patriots was Walter Bannerman, who won gold in the pole vault with a 4.90 meter performance, while his teammate Colton Ocetnik won bronze in the same event with a 4.70 meter vault. Arsalan Yaqubi was second in the men’s weight throw with a 19.03 meters, and Mason Love also took silver in the 5,000 meters, checking in at 14:13.54. Arun Mantena took bronze with a 7.13 in the long jump.
 
There were four records broken Friday, two in the weight throws, one in the women’s Distance Medley Relay and one in 60 meter dash preliminaries. VCU’s John Casper won the men’s weight throw with a 21.76 meter (71’ 4.5”) toss, topping the previous league mark of 20.491 meters by VCU’s Will Schwartz, set in 2020.
 
Casper’s teammate on the women’s side, Gudrun Hallgrimsdottir smashed a 13-year old championship record and also set the facility mark in the women’s weight throw with a heave of 21.27 meters (69’ 9.25”). She broke Mallory Barnes’ record of 20.78 meters, set in 2011 for Dayton.
 
La Salle’s women’s DMR team of Gwenno Goode, Soleil Morrison, Georgia-Rose Dawson, Christine Mancini set a new mark of 11:30.37, besting the mark set of 11:34.45 set by Richmond last year. The race was the closest of the day, with the Spiders also topping their mark from last year and finishing just a scant .01 behind La Salle at 11:30.39. UR’s team was made up of Kyra Keurentjes, Virginia Beringer, Caroline Donohoe and Elizabeth Stockman.
 
Rhode Island’s Tristen Howard set the A-10 record in the 60 meter dash preliminaries, breaking the tape at 6.73, besting a mark of 6.75, set by Rhody’s Nigel Hill in 2018.
 
On the women’s side, other event winners included Duquesne’s Jamelah Carswell won the Pentathlon with 3,563 points and Dayton’s Kendall Johnson was the leader in the long jump, taking gold with a 5.99 meter leap. The Flyers also won the 5,000 meters courtesy of Abby Carter with a time of 16:53.05.
 
The other event winners for the men included Rhode Island’s Derek Chalmers won gold with 7.37 meters in the long jump. Loyola Chicago’s Francois Guilhot ran a 14:05.46 to take gold in the 5,000 meters and The Ramblers also won the men’s DMR with a 9:51.70 with a team of Gabe Smit, James Howell, Miguel Abaitua, and Jason Clayton