By Chandler Harris, Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Lubbock last weekend for the Wes Kittley Invitational indoor track meet. Overall, the teams earned three automatic qualifying berths for the NCAA Division II meet in March and had 12 provisional qualifying performances. The teams competed against big-name programs such as Texas Tech and Baylor, as well as successful junior colleges.
On the men’s side, the 4×400-meter relay team posted the best time in the nation in Division II by more than five seconds with a time of 3:11.57. The team’s time was beat by only Baylor, which posted a 3:11.06.
Junior hurdler Andrew McDowell earned an individual automatic berth as he posted a time of 7.43 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles, good for fourth place, and Wanda Hutson ran an automatic time of 24.47 in the 200-meter placing second.
Gerald Chenyi and Idiato Jeremiah both provisionally qualified in the triple jump placing third (49-4.25) and fifth (47-5.00), respectively. Ramon Sparks provisionally qualified for both the triple jump (fourth with 48-5.50) and the long jump (second with 23-6.25). Ramon Radway provisionally qualified for the 400-meter with a time of 48.32 along with two pole vaulters, Aaron Cantrell and Landon Ehlers, who both cleared 15-7.00.
The women’s 4×400-meter relay team posted a time of 3:50.97 to take fourth place and provisionally qualify for the indoor championships. Five individuals on the women’s team also provisionally qualified. Kim Prather placed third in the 400-meter with a time of 56.52.
Jessica Sloss had a career best in the weight throw placing third with 54-10.25, while Paige Newby threw 43-9.25, good for ninth. Kelli Clements placed sixth in the shot put with a 45-11.75. Callie Young finished sixth in the pole vault clearing 11-9.75.
“It’s nice to just see that the work we put into training in the fall has paid off,” said head track and field coach Don Hood. “It’s just a great way to start it off. If we can compete with schools like Texas Tech, Baylor and TCU, then we are going to have a pretty good team.”
Saturday, the team travels back to Lubbock for another indoor meet.
