By Steve Holt, Sports Writer

While ACU’s top track and field athletes stayed in Abilene to train, a handful of Wildcats traveled to Lubbock for the Wes Kittley Invitational with the hopes of returning with new or improved qualifying times and marks.

Two athletes improved their provisional qualifying marks or times in Lubbock, but head coach Jon Murray said the real effect came through a full week of quality training.

“Everyone’s finally coming around,” Murray said. “We were real excited to get in the kind of work we have had.”

In Lubbock, senior Val Gorter won the pole vault with an improved provisional height of 12-6, while sophomore Brooklyn Hunt improved her provisional time in the 200 meters with a time of 24.81.

“It was a real low-key meet,” Murray said.

The rest of the team stayed in Abilene to complete a week of training in preparation for next weekend’s Tyson Foods Indoor Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. The Tyson Invitational will feature the best competition the Wildcat athletes will see all season, and Murray said he is pleased with where his teams are at this point in the season.

“The season has just begun, but it’s almost over,” Murray said. “We’ve got over the Christmas stuff, and anyone who didn’t get to do anything over the break has had four weeks of training. Everyone is looking good.”

Twenty-one athletes have qualified either provisionally or automatically for the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships March 11-12 in Boston.