The Big Country’s “big three” all came together at the Warhawk Classic hosted by McMurry this past weekend, where the Wildcats showed strong outings across the board against Division III neighbors Hardin-Simmons and McMurry.

ACU brought back plenty of hardware to campus, highlighted by Lola Buentello’s first-place finish in the women’s 1,500 meters, Neriah Williams taking first in the women’s triple jump, Audrey Chitwood placing third in the women’s 3,000 meters and Hana Banks finishing third in the women’s 100-meter hurdles.

Despite the overall success on the track, no group was more dominant than the Wildcats’ throws team.

Two Wildcats captured first-place finishes, with sophomore thrower Mariana Van Dyk of Houston winning the shot put and Justin Smithey taking the top spot in the men’s discus. Smithey, a freshman from Waxahachie, also set a new personal record at the meet and said the performance is building his confidence moving forward.

“There were like 48 discus throwers, but I ended up hitting a new PR and coming out on top, which I was pretty excited about,” Smithey said. “It definitely boosted my confidence, just to know that I can go against nearly 50 people and still come out on top.”

Head coach Nathan Ott said that the freshman is showing numbers way ahead of the high school-to-college weight change.

“It’s not always been fun. You know, the weight room’s been a killer, form and stuff, but he’s done a good job, worked hard,” Ott said. “You hope for two or three years, and he’s doing it in his first year … it’s phenomenal.”

On the women’s side, Western Athletic Conference indoor champion Mariana Van Dyk continued her success with another first-place finish while still focusing on improving her performance.

“There’s still just a lot to be worked on,” Van Dyk said. “I’m trying right now to work on implementing my practices to my competition.”

Even with her individual success, Van Dyk emphasized the team’s overall performance and growth.

“I’m super proud of my team,” Van Dyk said. “I feel like everyone has just kind of gone from like 0 to 100 this year.”

The teammates she referred to showed a whole lot of dominance from the Wildcat throwers, with Skyla Riedel placing second in the women’s javelin, Ella Cockrum finishing second in the women’s discus, Ciara Tilley taking second in the women’s shot put and third in the women’s discus, and Avery Myrick adding a third-place finish in the women’s javelin.

Ott doubled down on how well the team did and said the team is proud of their overall performance.

“It was just fun to go there and make them know who’s boss,” Ott said. “The team did well. We have some good people in the events that we got to compete in.”

Next up is the Joe Gillespie Invitational at Tarleton State on Friday, where many throwers are expected to rest as they prepare for the final stretch of big-time competition at Baylor and Texas Tech before the WAC Outdoor Championships start on May 14.