Michelle Atherley saved her best performance for the brightest lights.
The freshman set a personal best and school record in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday in Birmingham. She was one of two Auburn athletes to earn second-team All-America honors at the event.
Atherley scored 4,153 points, besting her previous school record of 4,148 set at the SEC Indoor Championships two weekends ago.
“As a true freshman, for Michelle to get to this meet was a great accomplishment,” said Auburn coach Ralph Spry. “She set a school record for the second meet in a row, which is impressive. She really competed well. Michelle will definitely score points in this meet down the road.”
Samantha Scarlett was also named a second-team All-American in the 60-meter hurdles but missed advancing to the finals of the event by two-hundredths of a second.
The senior ran a personal-best 8.12 seconds but, in the fastest preliminaries recorded at the NCAA Indoor Championships, finished 10th for the second consecutive year and did not advance to Saturday's finals.
“I’m very proud of the way that Sam competed,” Spry said. “It’s tough for her finishing just outside of finals again, despite setting a personal best. In a meet like this, that’s the measuring stick. If you line up and set a PR against on this stage against this type of competition, that’s all you can ask for.”
Auburn will have three athletes compete on Saturday — Marshay Ryan in the women's triple jump, Shawn Jonson in the men's triple jump and Jessie Johnson in the pole vault.
“I thought we had a good day, unfortunately the top eight final and score, and we finished just outside that in both events,” Spry said. “We’ve got some opportunities to score points tomorrow with Shawn, Jessie and Marshay. If they compete tomorrow the way that Michelle and Samatha did today, we’ll be pleased.”
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