By Jared Fields, Managing Editor
Despite giving many athletes a week off, the men’s and women’s track teams gained two women and three men provisional qualifiers at the David Noble Relays at Angelo State.
This weekend, head coach Don Hood will take a majority of his team to TCU. Until then, Hood is content with those who competed at Angelo State.
Johnny Jacob ran the 400-meters with a winning time of 47.64, something, Hood said, showed signs of improved health that can only get better.
“It was like he was warming up, and he was still up front,” Hood said.
Jacob said the cautious start could be improved and drop a second off his time.
“I wasn’t even running, just chillin’,” Jacob said about the first 100-meters of the race. “Then I thought, ‘I’m cool,’ and took off after that. … I didn’t feel bad but didn’t feel like I did before indoors.”
In the men’s 110-meter hurdles, Matt Pugh and Andrew McDowell posted provisional marks just one-hundredth of a second apart with times of 14.48 and 14.49, respectively.
“I was out the first two weeks [of the outdoor season],” Pugh said. “At least I got a time down … 14.2 is what I’m shooting for this week.”
Like Jacob, Pugh said he’s been battling an injury and isn’t quite up to full strength.
“Two weeks or so I’ll be feeling top notch,” Pugh said. “Things are going good.”
Pugh’s conditioning doesn’t affect his 110 hurdles but does on the 400-meter hurdles.
“I need a little more conditioning for the 400s,” Pugh said. “Coach Brown’s really helped me on keeping my form as one of the strong points this year.”
Rounding out the men provisional qualifiers, Landon Ehlers’ pole vault of 16-0.75 not only provisionally qualified him, but earned him a second-place finish in San Angelo as well.
On the women’s side, Keva Wilkins’ preliminary time of 56.04 provisionally qualified her while she won the meet in the finals with a time of 56.42.
Shawna-Kaye Thompson ran 1:03.08 in the 400-meter hurdles to post a provisional mark.
Two men bettered previous provisional times: Marvin Bien-Aime and David Walker.
Bien-Aime won the 100-meters with a time of 10.49, and Walker improved his long jump mark with a jump of 23-10.25.
