As students head home for the summer, the ACU track and field teams head to Corpus Christi for the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships which will be the cap to an outstanding season for many of the athletes.
All 13 teams will be at the Dr. Jack Dugan Soccer and Track stadium located on the Texas A&M Corpus Christi campus. The Wildcats are coming off of the Oliver Jackson Twilight meet, which was their last home meet of the season. The men’s and women’s teams each ran season best times in the 4×400 relay event. The men ran a 3:09.06, which ranks them second in the Southland, while the women’s team ran an impressive time of 3:40.39.
Sprinter, Deandre McBride will look to continue his dominating performance like he did at the home meet where he ran his best times as a Wildcat in the 400m and 200m respectively. McBride ran a 47.79 in the 400m, placing second and would follow that up with a first place finish in the 200m with a lifetime best time of 21.08. Those times moved McBride up to fifth and third in the Southland.
Over in field events, the men and women will aim to replicate their performance in the home meet. ACU claimed three victories at the meet, with Jelani Rainey and Lonnie Smith winning men and women’s hammer throw respectively. Kayla Melgar won the women’s discuss as well.
Allie Hackett will look to do what she’s been doing all season and that’s win. Hackett led a Wildcat sweep in the 1500m just a week ago when she won the event with a time of 4:31. Twin sister Michaela Hackett took second and was followed by the freshman power team of Aubrey Till and Carnley Graham.
ACU has had a tough season with meets all over the state as well as some of the best competitors in the nation. Another obstacle the team overcame was losing head coach Keith Barnier almost a month before the conference championships. The athletic department announced earlier this week that Barnier’s successor would be longtime Liberty University associate head coach, Lance Bingham. Bingham will join the team in June.
The Conference Championship is set for the 6-8 and can be streamed live on the Southland Conference Digital Network. It can also be watched online at Southland.org/watch.
