Sprinter Maisvorewa’s fine form continues in the US
ZIMBABWEAN sprinter Vimbayi Maisvorewa continued with her fine form in the collegiate track and field indoor season in the United States when she led the Auburn University 4x400m women’s relay team to an overall ninth-place position during the Razorback Invitational meet at Fayetteville in Arkansas.
During the week in which she was named the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe’s Senior Women Athlete of the Year for 2023, Maisvorewa received the good news from home by ‘’ganging up’’ with fellow Auburn University sprinters Abasiono Akpan, Zuriel Reed, and Deborah Oke in the women’s 4x400m event.
According to reports from Fayetteville, the Auburn women’s quartet of Akpan, Maisvorewa, Reed, and Oke ran a 3:33.78 in the 4x400m relay good for third all-time at Auburn and the fastest since 2006. The Tigers finished ninth in a field that had five of the nation’s top six times this year.
Maisvorewa, who is on an athletics scholarship at Auburn University, also took part in the women’s 400m event at the same meet and came eighth overall with a time of 52.42 seconds.
Another Zimbabwean athlete, who is on an athletics scholarship at Auburn University, Makanakaishe Charamba, a junior, was also part of the Tigers track and field team at the Razorback Invitational and ran in the men’s 60m dash where he recorded a time of 6.89seconds and was ranked 23rd overall.
The two Zimbabwean sprinters — Maisvorewa and Charamba — are enjoying a good indoor season at Auburn University where they have recorded some good times ahead of the outdoor season.
Meanwhile, Auburn senior Ryan Kinnane broke a 42-year-old school record in the men’s mile and freshman Max Hardin set the freshman school mark in the same event to highlight the final day of competition for the Auburn track and field team at the Razorback Invitational on Saturday.
Kinnane crossed in 3:58.28 to break Roger Jones’s time of 3:58.47 set in 1982, becoming the second Tiger in school history to run a sub-four-minute mile indoors. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Kinnane ran a strong back half to separate himself and win his section while finishing third overall en route to posting the nation’s 19th fastest time this season.
Hardin, racing in his first collegiate indoor mile, ran a 4:01.50 to break the previous freshman school record of 4:03.50 set by Felix Kiboiywo in 2007.
Sophomore Michael May recorded his second-best heptathlon score at Auburn finishing with 5,556 points, good for ninth nationally this season while finishing seventh overall in the event. The men’s heptathlon saw the top five competitors register the nation’s top five scores of the season.
Junior transfer Simone Johnson continued her strong indoor season with a second-place finish in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 13.14m/43-1.5, while teammate Amy Warren was sixth (12.51m/41-0.5).
Another strong outing from the Tigers’ distance unit was junior Louis O’Loughlin who ran Auburn’s fastest men’s 800m indoors in 17 years with a personal-best time of 1:49.74.
In the throws, sophomore Matthew Rueff surpassed his previous best in the shot put by over a foot with a throw of 18.07m/59-3.5 to claim eighth.
Auburn will now have a week off before returning to action on February 9-10 when it competes at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, SC, and the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston, Massachusetts.