LEXINGTON, Ky. — Senior Raevan Harris and freshman Marcus Rowland both won individual events with sparkling performances to highlight Saturday’s action for the Auburn track and field teams at the Kentucky Invitational.

Harris set a new school record in the high jump and Rowland beat a first-class field to win the 60 meters in his collegiate debut.

The Tigers excelled against a field of teams that included six nationally-ranked women’s teams and five nationally-ranked men’s squads, as well as a host of other top-flight teams from the SEC and other conferences.

“All in all I’m happy with how we performed this weekend,” said head coach Ralph Spry. “We just wanted to come in for our first meet and be competitive. I’m pleased with how we lined up and competed and got some NCAA qualifiers. It was a good start, and if we can keep it going from there it should be a good indoor season for us.”

Harris automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a school-record leap of 1.89m (6-2.25) to win the competition by five inches over her nearest competitor. Her jump broke the school mark of 6-2 set by Sissy Costner in 1990 and was the best mark by an Auburn woman indoors or outdoors in school history. She was perfect on all of her attempts throughout the competition until her winning height, missing once at 1.89m before clearing the bar on her second attempt.

Rowland had a dazzling debut for Auburn, blazing to a winning time of 6.66 seconds in the 60-meter dash to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships. He overcame a slow start to beat six-time All-American Evander Wells of Tennessee who finished second. Rowland’s time ranks him third in Auburn history in the 60 meters, behind only former Olympians Coby Miller and Marc Burns.

Auburn’s Joanna Atkins also had a strong meet, finishing second overall and first among collegians in the 200 meters with a time of 23.78, which is also an NCAA provisional qualifying time. Her time ranks seventh in school indoor history, giving her top-10 times at Auburn in three indoor events (60m, 400m). Freshman CeCe Williams was sixth in the 200m for Auburn with a time of 24.40, while Shaquela Williams was 13th (24.74).

Atkins was also sixth in the 60-meter dash and third among collegians with a time of 7.49, improving her personal best from last season by .02 seconds which ranks eighth in school history.

Junior Eric Werskey placed eighth in the men’s shot put with a mark of 17.25m (56-7.25), while junior Danielle Gilchrist reached the finals of the women’s 60m hurdles, where she finished 11th with a time of 8.66.

The men’s 4x400-meter relay team of Johnathan Haynes, Michael DeHaven, Bernard Spivey and Neil Danville was 12th with a time of 3:19.25.

Other top finishers for Auburn included junior Sabrina Fischer in the women’s 3,000 meters (14th — 10:04.03), freshman Jeff Sanders in the men’s 3,000 meters (15th — 8:43.54), DeHaven in the men’s 400 meters (49.23 — 30th) and junior Jager Livingston in the men’s 60-meter hurdles (8.81 — 23rd) and the 800 meters (2:02.17 — 28th).

The Tigers will return to action next Saturday when they compete at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic hosted by the University of Florida.

Women’s tennis wins again Saturday
Action continued Saturday in the second day of the Auburn Winter Invitational as the No. 27 Tigers defeated Southern Miss at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.

The day began with UAB facing Georgia State before Auburn took to the court in the afternoon.

“Today was good,” head women’s tennis coach Tim Gray said. “We came out in all the flights today and I think there was a greater degree of intensity. We had a lot of focus, which is sometimes hard this early in the season. We did a really nice job with that. I thought Daniella [Vukadinovic] did a very nice job in both singles and doubles flights today. There were a lot of bright spots throughout the day.”

In the morning, Jil Hastenrath and Dunja Djuranovic fell to Georgia State’s Diana Nakic and Linda Hricistova, 8-5. The Auburn pair competed in the morning as UAB did not have enough players to compete.

Starting with doubles in the afternoon, the No. 22 ranked duo of Fani Chifchieva and Melissa Koning came out strong against Elja van Berlo and Lauren Gutterman, taking an 8-0 victory in the Orange Flight.

In the Blue Flight doubles match, seniors Whitney Chappell and Alex Haney combined to earn an 8-1 win over Stephanie Dellocono and Hollie Robinson. Tiger rookies Myrthe Molenveld and Daniela Vukadinovic recorded an 8-0 victory against Zoe Lee and Shannon Rogers in the Tiger Flight.

In the War Eagle Flight, which took place in the morning, sophomore Djuranovic defeated Linda Hricistova of Georgia State, 7-5, 6-4.

Starting the afternoon singles, Haney, ranked 86th nationally, took a quick 6-0, 6-1 win over Stephanie Dellocono in the first Orange Flight match and set a quick pace for the rest of the Auburn flights.

Following the senior, sixth-ranked Chifchieva defeated Elja van Berlo, 6-0, 6-2, in the other Orange Flight.

In the two Blue Flight matches, Koning beat Lauren Gutterman 6-1, 6-0 and Molenveld won against Hollie Robinson, 6-2, 6-2.

Taking another win, Chappell finished her Tiger Flight match against Zoe Lee with a 6-0, 6-1 victory. Also in a Tiger Flight match was Daniela Vukadinovic, who earned a 6-0, 6-0 win over Shannon Rogers.

The Auburn Winter Invitational will come to a close today with play starting at 10 a.m. with Southern Miss taking on UAB. Auburn will face Georgia State at 2:30 p.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.