Mellinger, Tomkinson Set Duke Invitational Meet Records

Friday, April 12

Durham, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day Two at Duke Invitational

Charlotte Tomkinson takes a moment to exhale after finishing 1500m

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Mellinger, Tomkinson Set Duke Invitational Meet Records

4/13/2024 1:00:00 AM | Track & Field

Day 2 Results (PDF)

DURHAM – Graduate student Ezra Mellinger and senior Charlotte Tomkinson headlined another tremendous day of competition for Duke track and field at the Duke Invitational on Friday as the pair posted victories in the men's long jump and women's 1500m, respectively, en route to dismounting the meet records in those events.

In addition to Mellinger and Tomkinson's performances, the Blue Devils also registered four top-five program marks while securing wins in the men's 800m invite, men's long jump and women's high jump.

TOP PERFORMANCES

Mellinger registered the first meet record of the day for Duke en route to tallying one of the Blue Devils' five event wins.
Competing in the men's long jump, Mellinger produced his best leap of the competition on his fifth attempt and flew out to 7.50m (24-7.25 feet) – a distance that matched the graduate student's own meet record set in 2022.
Tomkinson helped the Blue Devils close out the nightcap on a high note, notching the fifth event win of the day – this one in the women's 1500m invite – while besting the previous meet record set by Samantha Tran in 2023 by nearly three seconds.
Tomkinson parlayed the best performance of her career into the top time in her section and the event overall, cementing herself atop the 35-person field. She clocked a time of 4:15.68, nearly two seconds faster than the event runner-up.
A quartet of Blue Devils in Austin Gabay, Lauren Tolbert, Ryan Wilson and Beck Wittstadt also had strong outings Friday with each carving out their respective spots in the Duke record books.
Wittstadt took part in the men's 800m invite and raced his way to a first-place finish via a personal-best time of 1:47.45 – good for No. 2 all-time in program lore.
On the women's side, Tolbert delivered a strong performance matching her personal best and No. 4 all-time Duke mark of 2:03.17.
Gabay and Wilson inserted themselves into the No. 3 and No. 4 spots on the Duke outdoor 1500m list behind personal and seasonal best performances, respectively. Gabay finished his race in 3:40.73 for fifth place, while Wilson took sixth after turning in a time of 3:41.36.
Duke's other two victories came via the women's high jump and women's 200m.
Addie Renner represented the Blue Devils in the high jump and claimed the victory behind a clearance of 1.70m (5-7 feet). The senior passed on the first five heights before clearing the next two on her first attempt.
The 200m race saw graduate student Halle Bieber dash in 23.46 seconds to earn her second event win and fifth overall of the outdoor season.
Multis also got underway on Friday with Duke holding firm in first place in both the men's decathlon and women's heptathlon after the conclusion of the first day's events.
Junior Michael Bennett sits atop the decathlon leaderboard with 3,771 points having posted wins in the 100m, long jump and 400m. Over in the heptathlon it is senior Brianna Smith leading the charge with 3,519 points. Smith notched top-three placements in each of the first four events including a win in the shot put.
Updated results through day two of the Duke Invite are available here.

UP NEXT
An action-packed Saturday slate opens via the men's decathlon 100m hurdles (9:30 a.m.) before the men's shot put (11 a.m.) gets the field events underway. On the track, Duke gets going at 12:00 p.m., in the women's 4x100m relay. The Blue Devils will also honor their senior class on Saturday with the ceremony set to take place at 11:30 a.m.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeTFXC."

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