ABILENE – Abilene Christian's nationally ranked track and field teams return to action for the first time in two weeks this coming Sunday and Monday for the Lone Star Conference Invitational, which will take place at the Texas Tech Athletic Training Center in Lubbock. The non-scoring meet will feature men's and women's squads from ACU, Incarnate Word, Texas A&M-Kingsville, and West Texas, as well as the women's team from Angelo State.
Events begin Sunday at 11 a.m. with the women's pentathlon 60-meter hurdles and conclude Monday at 1:20 p.m. with the finals of the 4x400m relay, which closely follows the format of next year's NCAA Indoor Championship. The mile, 3K and 5K also will be contested.
ACU's men's team enters the meet ranked 15th in the nation by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), and has so far produced two NCAA automatic and eight provisional marks through five meets.
Senior
Nick Jones surpassed the NCAA's automatic qualifying mark in the shot put during the year's first meet at Air Force with an effort of 18.24m (59'-10.25"), and then bettered his own indoor personal record at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational with a fourth-place throw of 18.72m (61'-5"). Jones has won two shot put titles this indoor season, in addition to the weight throw (17.38m, 57' 0.25") at the New Mexico Collegiate Invitational.
Jones currently ranks third among all DII shot put throwers behind Daniel Vanek of Grand Valley State (19.09m, 62' 7.75") and Derrick Vicars of Findlay (18.73m, 61' 5.5").
Junior transfer Dennis Bain attained his 60m hurdles automatic qualifying time of 7.95 seconds at New Mexico, a mark that currently ranks him fifth in the nation. Grand Canyon's Tyler Sipes is No. 1 in this event with an altitude-adjusted time of 7.82.
Bain's New Mexico performances also included a provisional time of 22.13 in the 200m dash, which is currently the 21st fastest time among all DII student-athletes.
Additional ACU provisional qualifiers on the track include No. 30 Paris Robertson (6.91) and No. 33 Levance Williams (6.92) in the 60m, No. 24 Jordan Geary in the 400m (49.00), and two separate 4x400m relay teams.
In the field, Williams owns a third-ranked long jump of 7.48m (24' 6.5"), which is six centimeters shy of tying the automatic qualifier distance of 7.54m, and in the multis, Parker Petty's season-best heptathlon score of 4836 is approximately 300 points short of qualifying for the NCAAs.
ACU's women's team begins the week ranked 17th, led by the nation's No. 1 triple jumper Amanda Ouedraogo. The junior first exceeded the NCAA qualifying mark in this event at the Texas Tech Open with a leap of 12.48m (40' 11.5"), and then topped that distance at the New York Armory with an indoor personal record distance of 12.92m (42' 4.75"). Her most recent jump also ranks second all-time at ACU behind Mazel Thomas' school record of 42-08.25 set in 1988.
Ouedraogo is the Wildcats' lone automatic qualifier, but they also claim nine additional provisional qualifiers. Sprinter Shennae Steele is ACU's highest-ranked athlete among this group as she currently ranks eighth in the 200m with a track-converted time of 25.02. She also ranks 16th in the 60m (7.72 seconds).
Elsewhere on the track, Karla Hope is 19th in the 400m (57.31), Chloe Susset ranks 20th among all milers (4:57.77), and freshman Lexus Williams is the 16th fastest 60m hurdler (8.73). ACU also has two 4x400m relay teams up for consideration, one led off by Williams (16th, 3:53.62) and the other by Cassie Brooks (25th, 3:54.61).
Weight throwers Alexis Wilder and Shalania Lakey rank 30th and 32nd, respectively, in the nation with their provisional throws of 16.69m (54' 9.25") and 16.54m (54' 3.25").
###
