LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - All six men's track and field teams were underway last week as they continue toprepare for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships.
Austin College, University of Dallas and Southwestern University traveled to the East Texas Invitational last week.
For the 'Roos, several runners set new personal records. Chris Biffar finished 23rd in the 1500-meter event, coming in with a new personal best time of 4:25.15, and Burhan Biviji came in with a time of 5:16.50.
Dallas' meet was highlighted by multiple PRs. Joseph Boyle notched a personal best time of 17:41.55 in the 5,000 meter run and Jonah Costello recorded personal record time of 2:36.96 in the 800. In the 200 meter dash, Cecilio Huitron narrowly clipped his previous best with a 35.33 mark. Charles Obegolu ran a PR in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.99 seconds. In field events, Daniel Layton hit a PR in the discus throw with a toss of 22.46 meters.
Southwestern senior Tyler Adams set a new school record in the discus with a throw of 41.35m for a 10th place finish while also finishing fifth in the shot put with a throw of 12.82m. Freshman Brandon Jenkins earned a seventh place finish in the high jump at 1.78m. Junior John Hattan finished third in the steeplechase at 10:25.1.
The Colorado College team wrapped up its final meet before the SCAC Championships, traveling to the Kit Mayer Invitational. The team posted a pair of top-10 results on Saturday as Henry Baldwin finished third in the high jump with a height of 6'6", and Peter Chapman placed eighth in the javelin with a career-best toss of 30.75 meters. On the track, Justin Nguyen (59.65 seconds) and Andrew Edds (1:00.75) placed 12th and 13th, respectively, in the 400-meter hurdles.
Texas Lutheran University and Trinity University both competed at the University of the Incarnate Word Invitational.
For the Bulldogs, Garrett Garza highlighted the weekend, winning the non-Division I shot put with a toss of 16.46 meters to set a new TLU record. The toss also ranks fifth in the nation this season. Alejandro Briseno also set a new school record in the hammer throw with a mark of 52.15 meters. The TLU men's 4x100 relay won the event at the UIW Invitational and moved up to 12th nationally with a time of 41.93 seconds. The team was made up of Bryce Johnson, Eli Augusta, Christopher Monroe and Paris Foster.
The Bulldogs had several other successful performances as Bailey Guerrier-Gattis won the triple jump with a leap of 13.02 meters, followed by teammate Heath McDonough in second with a 12.91 meter jump. Augusta and Zachary Velasquez took third and fourth, respectively, in the open 400 and Foster finished third in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.13 seconds. The 4x400 relay team of Wendel, Velasquez, Wong and Augusta won the event with a time of 3:22.95 and Jacob Guercia placed second in the javelin with a throw of 45.47 meters.
Trinity's Friday performance was highlighted by multipe runners in the 1500, with Michael Erickson leading the way with a 10th-place time of 4:01.70. Elliot Blake was just behind his teammate in 11th place, finishing just 0.14 seconds back. Harry Bellow came in 15th and Benjamin Creasy was 18th to round out the men's runners in the top 20. Jacob Hammond was fourth in the men's 5000 meter run to lead four Trinity runners in the top 20. Hammond finished in 15:30.74, followed by Brian Wongchotigul in 12th place.
On Saturday, Christian Matta had an outstanding day in both the 100 and 200 meter dash events. Matta posted personal records with a time of 10.93 seconds in the 100 and 21.87 seconds in the 200. Those times place him in a tie for second in school history for the 200 and in the top five at Trinity in the 100. Christopher Stewart also nabbed a new personal best with a time of 10.97 seconds in the 100 meter dash. Blair Walker also set a new personal record of 22.05 seconds in the 200 meter dash, which places him sixth in Trinity history. Walker also finished seventh in the 400 meter dash with his time of 50.28 seconds. Cody Hall won the men's 400 meter hurdle race.
Jackson Hollinger (triple jump) and Harry Bellow (800 meters) both finished fourth in their best events of the day.
