Outdoor season begins at UTSA Invitational

Outdoor season begins at UTSA Invitational | https://news.arizona.edu/

By East DFW News reports

Mar 24, 2023

Outdoor season begins at UTSA Invitational

Texas A&M University-Commerce track and field teams begin the outdoor season for the first time as Division I programs this weekend in San Antonio at the UTSA Invitational.

WHAT: UTSA Invitational
WHERE: San Antonio | Park West Athletics Complex
WHEN: Friday, March 17 – Saturday, March 18
LIVE RESULTS: https://www.trackforlife.com/results/20230317/
MEET INFO/SCHEDULE: https://goutsa.com/documents/2023/3/6/23_utsa_invitational_meet_info.pdf

A HISTORIC END TO 2022
This is the first outdoor competition for the Lions since ending their time in Division II last season with a fourth-place finish at the National Championships on the men's side and a program-best eighth place finish on the women's side.

LAST TIME OUT FOR THE LIONS
A&M-Commerce last competed two weeks ago in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Southland Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships, with the Lion men taking third and the women placing seventh. J.T. Smith (Klein Oak) in the men's 60 meter dash, Delan Edwin (Castries, Saint Lucia) in the men's 200 meter dash, and the women's 4x400 meter relay team earned the program's first conference championships in the Division I era.

THE LION MEN
The Lion men are led by Smith, who won the NCAA Division II 100 meter National Championship last season and also earned first team All-America honors in the 4x100 meter relay, as did Edwin, who qualified for the finals of the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, and the 4x100 meter relay last season.

During the indoor portion of this season, Ibrahim Fusseini (Accra, Ghana) reached the podium as the third-place finisher in the 60 meter dash, while the 4x400 meter relay squad of Philip Krenek (Kostelní Strimelice, Czech Republic), Eddie Barrientes (Chisholm Trail), Conner Stockerl (The Woodlands), and Edwin placed second at the conference championships last month.

In the field, Micky Ferdinand (Micoud, Saint Lucia) earned all-conference honors in the high jump, pole vault, and heptathlon at the indoor conference championships, while Trayveon Franklin (Montgomery) and Chandler King (Hughes Springs) were NCAA qualifiers last season in the triple jump and long jump, respectively.

THE LION WOMEN
On the women's side, the Lions are led by the 4x400 meter relay squad of Naomi Ndukwe (Perserville, France), Maia Maury (Noisy-Le-Grand, France), Sofia Khenfar (Lyon, France), and Mariana Shostak (Lviv, Ukraine), who won the 4x400 meter relay championship at the indoor conference championship this year and three of the four racers competed on the third place 4x400 meter relay team at the Division II Outdoor NCAA Championships last season.

Khenfar and Leah Pettis (McKinney North) qualified for the 60 meter dash and 200 meter dash finals at the indoor championships, while Shostak and Ndukwe also reached the finals of the 400 meter dash.

Jenneil Jacobie (Piat Gros Islet, Saint Lucia) holds the indoor high jump school record of 5 feet 8.5 inches (1.74m), taking third at the SLC Championships. Maury finished third in the indoor pentathlon, while Amaka Ezukanma (Fort Worth – Timber Creek) was a point scorer in the triple jump.