The Sam Houston State track and field team had another solid outing this past weekend at the Stephen F. Austin Invitational in Nacogdoches.
Seven more names were added to the NCAA Regional qualifying sheet from SHSU.
T.J. Cretors qualified in the men’s javelin throw with a toss of 211 feet, 7 inches and it was good enough to finish first at the meet. In the women’s javelin, Robin Pullen’s new school record throw of 146 feet, 5 inches was good enough to qualify for regional competition and earned her a fourth place finish.
“T.J. Cretors continues to get better each week in the javelin,” head track coach Greg Hinze said. “Robin Pullen chunked that spear out there as well, but the conference dynamic in that event has changed drastically from last year, so she still has her worked cut out for her.”
Also in field competition, Tenika Powell’s second place throw in the discus of 150 feet,10 inches was an NCAA Regional qualifying mark.
In track, another school record was broken as Kym Norsworthy, Joyce Oyakhire, Rachele Stevenson and Quantinette Fields cruised to a first place finish in the women’s 4×100-meter relay. Their time of 45.78 earned them a regional qualifying mark as well.
“The performance of the meet has to be the women’s 4×100 relay who blistered the track in 45.78,” Hinze said. “That is a huge school record and well under the regional qualifying time of 46.20.”
Other top men’s finishers were Clint Blinka, who finished fourth in the decathlon with 6,727 points, and Shandy Oncken who was sixth with 6,130. Randy Flach came in second in the pole vault, Clint Gallagher was third in the shot put and Joel McGowan was fourth in the high jump.
The men’s 4×100-meter relay team consisting of Adrian Ray, Chris Stewart, Courtney Boston and Brad Buegeler placed first with a time of 40.72. The current Southland Conference leaders were just two hundredths of a second from the regional qualifying time.
Boston also placed second in both the 100-meter and 200-meter with a time of 10.74 and 21.42 respectively. Stewart was third in the 100-meter with a time of 10.82 and Joe Amburn placed first in the 800-meter with a time of 1:51.81.
On the women’s side, Tiara Young came in sixth in the heptathlon and Renitta Woods was eighth. Jennie Sewell’s vault of 12 feet was good enough to land her a second place finish in the pole vault and Summer Sizemore was fourth. Sarah Hershman took second in the steeplechase and Oyakhire placed second in the 100-meter. Fields finished third in the 200m and Oyakhire was sixth.
“A good solid outing the week after the Texas Relays,” Hinze said. “We obviously gave the people who did the lion’s share of the work last week either a weekend off or a very light load this week, but we still kept up the momentum from last week.”
Next up for the Kats is the TCU Invitational on Saturday.