STEPHENVILLE — Tarleton State long jumpers Sofia DeGroot and Lokesh Sathyanathan each earned the WAC’s Field Athlete of the Week following their performance to start the indoor track and field season.
In just the first week of the season, Tarleton State’s jumpers swept the WAC’s Field Athletes of the Week. Sathyanathan was one of four Texan men last season to win an indoor weekly award. This week marks Sathyanathan’s second indoor weekly award to combine for his third total WAC weekly award. DeGroot earns her second WAC weekly award in her indoor career after earning her first a season ago.
Last season, the Texans earned four indoor WAC weekly awards on the men’s side and three on the women’s side. The men had five awards in the field with DeGroot the lone field athlete to earn the recognition.
Sathyanathan opened his season at the OU Winter Field Fest, earning second place. He notched his best season-opening jump of the year with his best of 7.75 meters. His leap is currently the second longest in the NCAA after the opening weekend. In his series, Sathyanathan tallied three jumps of at least 7.50 meters. The senior was just 0.02 meters behind Oklahoma’s Kennedy Stringfellow who captured the individual title and holds the best indoor long jump of the season so far.
DeGroot led the Texan women with a third-place finish in the long jump at the meet. Her best leap of 6.04 meters came on her second jump. DeGroot now ranks third in indoor program history and is one of four Texans to have an indoor personal best of at least 6.00 meters. The junior is ranked 14th in the nation so far this year in the women’s long jump. She improved her personal best by over a tenth of a meter. It was her only leap of at least six meters and one of five in the entire competition.
Tarleton State will be back in action on Jan. 16-17 at the Corky Classic hosted by Texas Tech. The meet will be held at the Texas Tech Sports Performance Center in Lubbock, Tex.
Be the first to comment