Track wins three events at meet

The Texas A&M University – Commerce track and field teams had an impressive meet Thursday, when they ran at the McMurry Relays in Abilene. “We went to the McMurrry meet with the intention to bring home some place winners. We brought home numerous place winners including three first and a number of seconds and thirds,” Head Coach Rich Lawrence said. In the meet, the Lions picked up event wins by Brad Dotson, Dean Laing and Leslie White. Dotson set a new season-best time in the 400m dash, with a time of 48.98 seconds. Laing also set a new season-best when he finished the 110m hurdles in 15.24 seconds. Running in the same heat of the 400 as Dotson, Cairo Thornton ran a season-best time of 50.56 seconds, finishing 4th overall, 3rd among collegians. White finished the high jump with a season-best mark of 2.04m(6-8 ¾). White’s winning mark in the high jump was less than an inch of the provisional qualifying mark required for the NCAA National Championship meet later this spring. Also for White, was a season-best throw in the javelin event, with a throw of 55.77m(182-11). Herron Love ran a season-best time in the 200m dash, with finishing 11th place in 22.90 seconds. His finish was a top team season-best for the 2008 season. “I was really pleased with Brad (Dotson) and Cairo (Thornton) in the 400 and with Herron (Love) in the 200,” Graduate Assistant Coach Brian Stephenson said. Finishing 2nd place in relays, were the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m “A” teams. The 4×100 “A” team consisted of Love, Lyndon Wyse, Dotson, and Laing, who finished the race in 42.77 seconds. The 4x400m “A” team consisted of Dotson, Wyse, Thornton and Laing, who finished the race in 3:20.63. Preston Duncan set a new season-best in the 400m hurdles, by finishing the event in 58.43 seconds, beating his previous season-best mark by nearly a second. The 100m dash saw three new season-best times from Anthony Valle (11.13 seconds/9th place), Wyse (11.33 seconds/12th place), and Lynden Poole (11.43/15th place). Valle’s time of 11.13 seconds also set a new top team-best time in the event. Similar to the 100, was the 200m dash, which had three season-best times in addition to Love’s 2nd place time of 21.90. Season-best times in the 200 were from Valle (23.31 seconds/13th place), Poole (23.32 seconds/14th place), and Josh Conder (24.70 seconds/18th place). Conder also set a new season-best in the high jump event, by clearing a height of 1.91m(6-3 ¼).Michael Williams not only helped the 4x100m relay “B” team to a finish in 43.94 seconds, he also jumped 12.23m(40-1 ¼) in the triple jump, where he finished 3rd place overall. Jeff Rayome set three new season-best marks in the field events at McMurry, by finishing 4th place in the shot put and discus, and finishing 9th place in the hammer. “When a team, and it was a team effort, can accomplish these two objectives(place winners & improving personal bests) in a meet, it is a gigantic step forward for the athletes, the training program and the team,” Lawrence said. Next up for the teams, is the David Noble Relays, being held April 10-12 in San Angelo.