Parker Wins Hammer to Highlight Three-Meet Day for Trojans

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., OXFORD, Miss., and SEARCY, Ark. – Little Rock redshirt junior Isaiah Parker won the hammer throw at the Harding Bison Open, Ethan Sorrels is in second in the decathlon halfway through the Joe Walker Invitational at Ole Miss and Aaron Soltmann led the Little Rock contingent at the John McDonnell Invitational in a busy day of action for the Trojans Friday.
 
Little Rock was split between the three meets, scattered across two states as the Trojans marked their second weekend of split squad action this season.
 
Parker led the way for Little Rock as he won the hammer on the first day of the Harding Bison Open with a throw of 166-11 (50.87m) to claim gold. Casey Griffin followed in second as his season-best throw of 146-4 (44.61m) ranks as the fifth-best mark in school history while Desmond Frazier threw 129-10 (39.57m) to finish fifth and register the seventh-best throw in school history.
 
On the women's side, Alison Stephens claimed silver with a throw of 160-2 (48.82m) while Allison Stigarll placed fifth as her throw 140-1 (42.70m) marked the fifth-best throw in school history.
 
At the Joe Walker Invitational hosted by Ole Miss, Ethan Sorrels finished the first half of the decathlon in second place with 3,264 points. He posted the best high jump of all the multis competitors as he cleared 6-2.25 (1.89m) while his 100m dash time of 11.31 marked a personal best. Gabby Ayiteyfio posted personal best marks in the 100m hurdles (15.88), the 200m dash (25.78) and in the high jump (5-0.25, 1.53m) to end the first day in 12^th place.
 
Over in Fayetteville, Aaron Soltmann led the Little Rock group as he finished seventh in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 10:12.20 while Lindsey Hutcheson ran 12:00.15 on the women's side to finish ninth.
 
Keila Finnestad posted an eight-second personal best time in the 1,500m to finish 16^th as she ran 4:52.35 while Ariana Garcia ran 4:53.70 for a personal best mark of her own. Andrew Payton ran a four-second personal best mark in the 1,500m, clocking 4:01.25 to finish 19^th.
 
Action at the Joe Walker Invitational at Ole Miss and at the Harding Bison Open in Searcy continues on Saturday.
 
For the latest information on Little Rock Track & Field, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockTFXC on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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