Tarleton sets five school marks, earns 19 medals at LSC meet

Mile Relay feature — Tarleton State won the men's 4x400 meter relay in a school-record time of 3:08.53 at the Lone Star Conference Track & Field Championships in San Angelo. || Courtesy Tarleton Athletic Communications

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SAN ANGELO – Finishing the Lone Star Conference championships in exciting fashion, setting two school records and recording an NCAA automatic mark in the final event, TexAnns finish third overall in the team standings while the Texans take fifth at the 81^st LSC outdoor track and field championships.

“You always want to end a championship event on a high note and I don’t think (we) could’ve ended it any higher then what we did tonight with those 4x400m relays”, said Tarleton coach Pat Ponder.

The Tarleton women also set the school record in the 4x400 meter relay, taking second in 3:42.15 at the Lone Star Conference Track & Field Championships in San Angelo. || Courtesy Tarleton Athletic Communications — The Tarleton women also set the school record in the 4×400 meter relay, taking second in 3:42.15 at the Lone Star Conference Track & Field Championships in San Angelo. || Courtesy Tarleton Athletic Communications

The TexAnn 4x400m relay, already provisionally qualified for the NCAA championships, continued to lower their season best time, this time breaking a 10-year old school record in the process. The quartet of LaDaria Nelson, DeAijha Hicks-Boyce, Leslie Zupanic, and Jasmine Owens erased the school record of 3:42.40 set by Amy Mills, Dorinda Harris, Courtney Pleasant, and Deba Egbon set back in 2005. The TexAnns barely missed out on the gold medal after a strong finish by Jasmine Owens in the final 50m to finish a mere twenty one one-hundredths of a second behind Texas A&M-Kingsville. The TexAnn 4x400m relay finishes the weekend ranked No. 6 in Division II.

For the Texans, the 4x400m relay would Terrance Gross, Cameron Krc, Clarencio Guerrero, andGilson Umunnakwe reset the school record, record an NCAA automatic time of 3:08.53, and win an LSC title after being runner-up the previous two seasons. The dream of a gold medal became a reality when sophomore Gilson Umunnakwe used a late surge down the home stretch to pass Wala Gime of Angelo State in the final meters for the five one-hundreths of a second victory over the Rams. The Texan mile-relay finished the weekend as the No. 2 1600m squad in Division II this season.

A third quartet of Tarleton athletes would rewrite the record books Saturday afternoon as Deylinn Garrett, Euphemia Edem, Hollie Boyd, and DeAijha Hicks-Boyce would take the baton the distance in a school record 45.91 to claim second-place in the 4x100m relay. The TexAnn relay is ranked No. 8 in the nation after their performance this weekend.

Euphemia Edem picked up right where she left off yesterday in the field, this time in the long jump, winning her second LSC title in as many days finishing the competition with a best jump of 6.44m (21-01.50). Edem’s jump was more than two feet further than her closest competitor and would have been an LSC meet record had the wind been within the NCAA legal limit of 2.0 mph.

Sarah Vann capped off her collegiate track and field career with a fourth place finish in the javelin throw posting a best throw of 33.58m (110-02) to collect five points for the TexAnns.

Staying with the javelin, for the Texans it was junior Peyton Best recording a best throw of 46.38m (152-02) finishing in 10th-place.

In the high jump the freshman duo of Mikala Booher (1.62m) and Roxana Hernandez (1.58m) would finish third and seventh, clearing 5-3.75 and 5-2.25, respectively.

While Booher and Hernandez turned in solid performances in the high jump for the TexAnns, it was senior dual-athlete Davene Carter who stole the limelight in the event for Tarleton clearing a personal best 2.14m (7-00.25) en route to a silver medal podium appearance. The senior forward/high jumper who came into the meet with an all-time best of 6-10.75 –set in 2013 when Carter competed at the NCAA championships – added one and one-half inches to his personal best to finish as the No. 6 high jumper in Division II this season.

On the track for the first of three times Saturday was Chase Rathke to compete in the 1500m. Rathke, a national champion in the 1500m during the 2014 season would run a majority of the race tucked in the hip of Angelo State’s Dylan Doss before swinging wide off the curve with 100m left using his foot-speed to out last the kick of Doss and take the gold in 3:51.15. Teammate Dylan Willett– a 2014 All-American in the 1500m – would take sixth-place in the race following behind Rathke at 4:02.55.

Deylinn Garrett returned to the track in the 100m hurdles along with Molly Money to record fourth and sixth-place finishes clocking 15.01 and 15.39, respectively.

The 400m was a huge event for Tarleton as five athletes would compete in the finals scoring 21 total points between LaDaria Nelson (56.19), Jasmine Owens (56.33), Leslie Zupanic (57.85), Terrance Gross(47.38), and Cameron Krc (48.45) who finished third, fourth, eighth, second and eighth, respectively.

Three TexAnn runners competed in the 100m final for Tarleton. Euphemia Edem would collect her fourth medal of the meet clocking a personal best 11.84 taking third-place, closely followed by – down to the one-one thousandth – DeAijha Hicks-Boyce who ran an identical 11.84. Hollie Boydrounded out the scoring in the 100 meters recording a 12.11 in an eighth-place finish.

Chase Rathke at 1:55.70 would finish seventh in the 800m while Randall Kadlacek (55.13) and Blake Eschbach (58.62) would finish seventh and eighth in the 400m hurdles, respectively

DeAijha Hicks Boyce would add to the hardware for Tarleton with a 24.21 second-place performance in the 200m.

Tarleton recorded five gold, 10 silver and four bronze medals throughout the LSC championships.
“I’m proud of the way we competed over the three-day grind of the conference championships”, said Ponder. “You can never be satisfied, we can be appreciative of what we’ve done, we just need to take one step more, we’re building some great things here”

The track and field teams will await the release of the accepted entries for the 2015 NCAA outdoor track and field championships in Grand Valley, Michigan May 21-23.

COMPLETE DAY TWO TARLETON RESULTS

Javelin
4. Sarah Vann – 33.58m (110-02) PERSONAL BEST
11. Leanne Flores – 27.57m (90-05) PERSONAL BEST
14. Amanda Smith – 23.90m (78-05)

10. Peyton Best – 46.38m (152-02)

Long Jump
1. Euphemia Edem – 6.44m (21-01.50)
4. Andrea Ibe – 5.63m (18-05.75) PERSONAL BEST

Discus
15.Marissa Westbrook – 33.32m (109-04)
16. Danyelle Dillard – 32.56m (106-10)

16. Ramon Lee – 41.72m (136-10)
19. Kenny Odunaiya – 37.40m (122-08)

High Jump
3. Mikala Booher – 1.62m (5-3.75) SEASON BEST
7. Roxana Hernandez – 1.58m (5-2.25)

2. Davene Carter – 2.14m (7-00.25) PERSONAL BEST

4x100m Relay
2. Garrett, Edem, Boyd, Hicks-Boyce – 45.91 NEW SCHOOL RECORD

7. Huntley, Thompson, Jones, Hayes – 42.02

1500m
9. Tylo Farrar – 4:49.12
11. Haley Dennard – 5:04.12
12. Lauren Finley – 5:05.74

1. Chase Rathke – 3:51.15
6. Dylan Willett – 4:02.55
13. Dylan Heinig – 4:14.86
15. Stefan Campos – 4:19.73