Cara Laverty shines with second place finish at Black and Gold Invitational

Finn Valley AC athlete Cara Laverty clocked 4:21.46 for second at the 1,500 metre Black and Gold Invitational, held at the UCF Soccer and Track Complex in Orlando at the weekend.

Louisville's Rylee Penn finished first ahead of Laverty with an outstanding time of 4:11:97.

In terms of Finn Valley records, Laverty now stands second with this most recent time, surpassing a time of 4:22.60, set by Castlefin woman Camilla Harron at Occidental College, Los Angeles in 1987.

However, Tyrone native Roisin Flanagan holds the 1.500m club record of 4:15:50, which she broke in Dublin back in June 2021.

For the first time in the program’s history, the UCF track and field team competed in Orlando.

The two-day meet commenced on Friday with the discus at 11am before 18 events spotlighted some of the top athletes in the world, concluding with the 4x400m relay on Saturday.

In August 2022, Laverty took up a scholarship at Providence College in Rhode Island and most recently back in November, she helped them to team silver at the BIG EAST Cross Country Championships.