Texas State Track and field took their final meet before the Sun Belt Indoor Championships by storm, earning 20 of the top 10 marks in the SBC at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Graduate student Julian Olivas now ranks in the top 25 in NCAA Division I track and field after his second-place finish in the heptathlon. Olivas scored 5,000 points to get the silver in the meet, putting him at the top of the league. Olivas also holds the Sun Belt’s top pole vault mark with his 5.11 meter launch in the heptathlon.
The ‘Cats swept the women’s 60-meter hurdles, with sophomore Kattiana Ealy-Pulido taking a conference-best time of 8.43 seconds, junior Paige Kimble coming in second at 8.48 seconds and junior Javlyn Cameron rounding out the top three with a time of 8.60 seconds.
Also taking a top conference spot was sophomore Sadi Giles, who now sits at the top of both the women’s 60-meter and 200-meter dash. Giles posted a time of 7.46 seconds in the 60-meters and 24.28 in the 200, one-hundreth of a second faster than freshman Alexa Venezuala, who took second in the conference.
The Bobcats dominated the jumping events, with junior Noah Herring taking a second-place finish in the men’s triple jump with a leap of 15.42 meters. The jump put him at second in the Sun Belt for triple jump. Junior Ronnie Briscoe, Jr. also put up a second-place Sun Belt finish, placing third in the meet in the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.52 meters.
On the women’s side, sophomore Katherine Stuckly cleared 1.70 meters to take a fifth-place slot in the Sun Belt in women’s high jump.
Sophomore Pedro Osorio-Lopez took second place in both the meet and the Sun Belt after crossing the finish line at 1:53.77 in the men’s 800-meters. His cross-country teammate, senior Johen Deleon, also placed in the top five in the mile with a time of 4:13.49.
Osorio-Lopez teamed up with junior Jaylen Allen, freshman Taahir Kelly and senior Christian Jackson for another top Sun Belt time, finishing the men’s 4×400-meter relay in 3:17.50 for a top five conference time. Allen also placed in the top 10 in the Sun Belt, crossing the finish at 21.65 seconds in the men’s 200-meters.
Junior Myles Anders closed out the men’s track events with the conference’s third-fastest time in the 60-meters with a time of 6.82 seconds.
The true test for the ‘Cats will come at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships on Monday, February 24 and Tuesday, Feb 25 in Birmingham, Alabama. The women’s team will look to clinch a four-peat in the Indoor Championships, while the men’s team is hot off of their first Outdoor Championships in history in May and will look to add another title under their belt.
Both teams will face their conference opponents at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships beginning on the morning of Monday, Feb 24.