The ‘Cats came home from the Texas Relays and the Bobcat Invitational with two personal records, 28 top-five finishes and 15 first-place titles.
Sophomore runner Diana Garcia Muñoz continued to impress her opponents at the 88th Annual Texas Relays meet.
Muñoz placed fifth in the weekend meet with a 1,500-meter time of 4:36.46, which she beat last weekend by two seconds and earned the honor of Southland Conference women’s athlete of the week.
Teammate and junior thrower Jelani Rainey said he thinks this weekend showed him what he needs to work on to be successful in the following meets.
“It was a step in the right direction,” Rainey said. “I am going to try to focus on my competition mindset and my tempo in the ring this weekend as I throw.”
Rainey placed 29th at the Bobcat invitational in men’s discus with a throw of 42.35 meters.
Sophomore multi-event competitor Taylor Yantis, junior multi-event competitor Luke Woods and freshman multi-event competitor Wyatt French all had a successful weekend at the Bobcat Invitational.
Yantis placed first in the heptathlon hurdles, high jump, 200-meter race and shot put.
Woods stole first in the decathlon shot put, followed by French in sixth.
The duo switched spots in decathlon high jump and long jump when French took first with 687 points, followed by 826 points in long jump.
Woods took fourth in both events with 585 and 695 points.
Woods and Yantis came away with overall multi-event victory titles in the decathlon and heptathlon.
Even with some great performances, the ‘Cats still believe there is room for improvement.
“This weekend allowed me and my coaches to see what things I really need to improve on,” Rainey said.
Being only the second meet of the outdoor season, the Wildcats have time to prepare and progress their game.
Freshman distance runner Ryan Cleary placed seventh, behind teammate Sterlen Paul in third, in the men’s 800-meter run at the Bobcat Invitational.
With a time of 1:54.20, Cleary was only a little over a second behind third-place victor, Paul.
“I think it helped us get a baseline standpoint of the rest of the season,” said Cleary.
Sophomore distance runner Reid Rivers claimed a personal record time of 1:57.69 behind Paul and Cleary in the 800-meter race, finishing in 15th overall.
The ‘Cats performed well in the Div. I meets this weekend and were granted strong preparation for the upcoming meet this weekend in Lubbock.
The ‘Cats will be back at Texas Tech for the third time this year – first time for outdoor season – to participate in the Texas Tech Open.
