SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Middle Tennessee men's and women's track and field teams looked great on a day full of prelims with more than a handful of Blue Raiders heading into the finals for their respective events Sunday. Three Blue Raiders had podium finishes in the high jump and long jump events.
After the first full day of competition for Middle Tennessee, the women sit in fourth overall just 10 points behind first, and the men are in sixth with just 21 points total(Rice holds first with 93 points).
The day started with the men's and women's long jump at 1:00 p.m. In the men's long jump,
Benjamin Onyekwelu took gold with a personal-best mark of 7.82 meters. On the women's side, three Blue Raiders finished in the top five including a first-place finish for
Esther Isa with a personal-best mark of 6.39 meters. In fourth and fifth were
Abigail Kwarteng and
Lyn'Nikka Vance with marks of 6.12 meters and 6.09 meters respectively. Kwarteng's mark was a personal best.
The third podium finish of the day came when
Omamuyovwi Erhire took second during the high jump with a height of 2.17 meters. The mark of 2.17 meters came during a jump off with the last two competitors and is 0.01 meters short of his season-best mark of 2.18 meters.
Freshman
Alaba Akintola is heading to the finals on Sunday for the men's 100 meter and 200 meter. In the 100-meter prelims, Akintola took first overall with a stadium-record time of 10.19 seconds. Later that night he ran a 20.84-second 200-meter dash, placing him at first in his heat and second overall.
Eusila Chepkemei is looking to repeat what she did at the C-USA Indoor Championships as she qualified for the women's 1500-meter and 800-meter finals on Sunday. During the 1500-meter prelims, Chepkemei took second overall with a time of 4:40.68. She put it in cruise during the women's 800-meter prelims, taking first overall with a time of 2:08.65. Not far behind Chepkemei was
Francisca Jebor with a time of 2:10.38, good enough to head into the finals tomorrow.
After placing in the top five for the women's long jump earlier in the day,
Lyn'Nikka Vance is heading to the finals on Sunday for the 100 meter and 200 meter. During the 100-meter prelims, Vance set a new personal best with a time of 11.72 seconds, taking third overall. Later that night, she took second in her heat with a time of 24.39 seconds in the 200-meter dash.
Glory Nyenke took first in her heat and second overall during the women's 400-meter prelims with an outdoor personal best time of 54.73 seconds. In the women's 400-meter hurdles, Nyenke took first in her heat and third overall with a time of 1:00.07. She will compete in the finals for both events tomorrow.
The men's 110-meter hurdle and 400-meter hurdle finals will be represented by
Stephen Eloji on Sunday. Eloji took third in the prelims for both events with times of 13.90 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and 52.50 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles.
The men's distance team put in the work today, holding five final's spots for the 800 meter and 1500 meter.
Habtamu Geta took second in the 1500 with a personal-best time of 3:54.46 and third in the 800 with a time of 1:53.38. Kimaiyo qualified for both events with a first-place finish in the men's 1500 with a time of 3:50.24 and third in the 800 with a personal-best time of 1:53.57.
Brian Rono only competed in the men's 800 and took fourth overall with a time of 1:53.09.
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