The Texas A&M University – Commerce track and field teams began their season a week later than expected when they traveled to Stephenville, Texas to participate in the Tarleton State Relays on March 13.
The Lions were supposed to begin their season a week earlier at the York Relays, hosted by Sam Houston State in Huntsville, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
The York Relays meet was cancelled due to bad weather, and the only event that took place, was the decathlon, of which A&M-C’s Dean Laing finished in fourth place among Division I athletes, with 5,389 points.
In the men’s 100-meter dash, Leonard Jackson finished 11th place in 11.14 seconds, while Anthony Valle finished 18th place in 11.43 seconds. Lynden Poole finished the event in 19th place in 11.54 seconds.
A&M-C had a strong finish in the 200-meter dash from Leonard Jackson with a 2nd place finish overall, but 1st place among college runners, with a time of 22.13 seconds.
Herron Love finished 15th place in the 200 with a time of 22.83 seconds, while Anthony Valle finished in 20th place, with a time of 23.42 seconds. Lynden Poole and Josh Conder rounded out the 200 finishers for A&M-C, with Poole finishing 23rd with a time of 23.85 seconds, and Conder finishing 27th with a time of 25.44 seconds.
In the 400-meter dash, Brad Dotson was the top finisher for A&M-C with a 2nd place finish in 49.69 seconds. Cairo Thornton finished in 11th, with a time of 51.83 seconds, Michael Williams finished in 12th, with a time of 52.03 seconds. Anthony Tosie finished out the 400 for A&M-C with a 15th place finish in 53.13 seconds.
“I was really happy with Leonard Jackson and Brad Dotson’s performances on the men’s side,” Head Coach Rich Lawrence said.
In the 1500-meter run, Brandon Womack finished 2nd place (14:10.64), Logan Kelly finished 8th place (4:21.65), while Kasie Carrell finished 13th place (4:28.41).
Tyler Tyndell led A&M-C runners in the 5000-meter run, which had more than 40 runners in the field. Tyndell finished 4th place, with a time of 15:29.93, while Robert Reed finished 6th place, with a time of 15:44.8. Gerardo Delafuente finished 13th place, with a time of 16:29.09.
During his first meet for A&M-C, Preston Duncan took part in both the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles. Duncan finished 10th place finish in the 110 hurdles, with a time of 17.80 seconds, and 5th place finish in the 400 hurdles with a time of 59.34 seconds.
A&M-C fielded two 4×100-meter relay teams, but after the ‘A’ team was disqualified, the ‘B’ team finished 5th place, with a time of 43.03 seconds.
During the 4×400-meter relays, A&M-C had four different teams running in the event. The ‘A’ team finished 3rd place (3:22.26), ‘B’ team finished 6th place (3:30.73), ‘D’ team finished 9th place (3:42.10), while the ‘C’ team finished 10th place, with a time of 3:42.44.
Leslie White participated in the high jump and javelin events, where he set new personal bests in both events. In the high jump, White finished 1st place by clearing 6-6 (1.98m), and he also improved his personal best in the javelin by nearly 10 feet, with a throw of 180-1 (54.88m).
Also in the high jump, was Josh Conder, who finished 3rd place by clearing 6-2 (1.88m).
Dean Laing finished 7th place in the long jump event, his longest jump being 18-8 (5.69m).
Lyndon Wyse finished 2nd in the triple jump, with his longest jump being 46-10 (14.27m).
Darron Sheppard threw 47-6 ½ (14.49m) in the shot put event, good for a 7th place finish. Also in the shot put event, was Jeff Rayome, who threw 45-9 ¾ (13.96m), which allowed for Rayome to finish 8th place.
Sheppard and Rayome also threw in the discus event, with Sheppard finishing 4th place (150-1 / 45.75m), while Rayome finished 10th place (123-0 / 37.50m).
Rayome finished 10th place in the hammer event, with a throw of 103-8 (31.61m).
“The men came home with less. As a men’s field team we have to improve,” Lawrence said.
For the women, there were some key finishes in events, and a more noticeable presence in field events than past years, specifically in the long jump, triple jump and hurdle events.
Katie Barthold led A&M-C in the 100-meter dash, with a 7th place finish in 12.79 seconds, while Alycea Wallace finished close behind Barthold in 9th place, with a time of 12.98 seconds. Rounding the field out was Dena Hawkins who finished 13th place with a time of 14.11 seconds.
Sabrina Hadnot was the lone A&M-C in the 200-meter dash, with a 12th place finish in 27.26 seconds.
Makesha Brewer finished 8th place in the 400-meter dash, with a time of 69.37 seconds.
A&M-C runners Andra Bickel and Kate Donovan finished four-tenths of a second apart, with 4th and 5th place finishes, respectively, with Bickel finishing in 5:29.50, and Donovan finishing in 5:29.90.
Sunny Henderson ran in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing 3rd place in 16.44 seconds.
Leslea Traylor finished 5th place in 76.91 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles.
In the 4×100-meter relay, A&M-C fielded two teams. The ‘A’ team finished 2nd place in 49.64 seconds, while the ‘B’ team finished 5th place in 52.61 seconds.
The 4×400-meter relay race had three A&M-C teams. The ‘A’ team finished 3rd place (4:11.52), the ‘B’ team finished 7th place (4:32.81), while the ‘C’ team finished 8th place (4:33.59).
Randahl Hickman tied for 9th place, by clearing 4-8 ¼ (1.43m).
Jessica Brown participated in both the long jump and triple jump events. Brown finished 6th place in the long jump, with a jump of 15-9 (4.80m). Brown finished 2nd place in the triple jump, with a distance of 34-4 (10.46m).
Also participating in the triple jump, was Dena Hawkins, who finished 3rd with a jump of 33-4 (10.16m).
LaShara Jackson threw shot put and discus, where she finished 3rd place in both events. Jackson threw 39-½ (11.90m) in shot put, and 137-7 (41.94m) in the discus events.
Taylor Smith finished 5th in the shot put, with a throw of 35-8 ½ (10.88m).
Like her teammate LaShara Jackson, Britney Fisher threw in both the shot put and discus events. She finished 8th in the shot put with a distance of 33-10 ¼ (10.32m), and finished 4th in the discus with a distance of 126-1 (38.45m).
Rachel Redding threw in both the discus and hammer events, where she finished 8th in discus with a distance of 112-9 (34.37m), and finished 4th in he hammer throw, with a distance of 136-9 (41.69m).
Also participating in the discus event, was Megan Davis, who finished 10th by throwing 104-3 (31.78m).
In her first time throwing javelin, Henderson finished 5th by throwing 115-5 (35.18m). Her distance of 115-5 beat last season’s best throw by Haley Wright by nearly 15 feet.
“Our women’s team as a whole showed improvement over last year. The women’s field events came home with more places then last year,” Lawrence said.
Reflecting on how the first meet went, Assistant Coach Jason Wicke summed it up pretty well.
“Overall, the team did extremely well for the first meet of the season. Many of the athletes were breaking through the rust of not having competed in a while, but still performed exceptionally well,” Wicke said.
Graduate Assistant Coach Brian Stephenson summed up the performances of how the sprinters performed at the Tarleton meet also.
“Everybody performed where I thought they could perform. We are far beyond where we were towards the end of last season, so that’s always promising.