- Results

STEPHENVILLE – In the outdoor track and field season opener at Memorial Stadium, Tarleton State had a dominant showing with 28 top-five finishes, three victories and an NCAA provisional mark.
 
"I'm really proud of our performances today," said Tarleton head coach Pat Ponder. "The men's 4x400m relay team hit a provisional mark and gave us a really good start to the outdoor season."
   
Tarleton handled its business in the distance events and relays, earning both victories – the men's and women's 1500m run – and the lone NCAA provisional mark with the top men's 4x400m relay team earning the national mark.
 
The relay team, consisting of Clarencio Guerrero, Michael Eschbach, Cameron Krc and Gilson Umunnakwe, finished in second place with a time of 3:14.15 to secure their place among the nation's best.
 
In addition to the Mile Relay mark, Tarleton also dominated the 1500m run by finishing 1-2 in both the men's and women's race – including a 1-2-3 finish on the men's side – and getting six total top-five finishes from the men and women in the event.
 
For the men, Chase Rathke won the event with a time of 3:54.99 while Dylan Willett (3:56.13) and Tye Doty (3:57.22) came in right behind him for second and third place finishes, respectively.
 
On the women's side, Lindsey Hinton and Aly Coughlin – reminiscent of the Lone Star Conference Cross Country Championship – came in first and second place with times of 4:40.22 and 4:42.36, respectively. Hinton's time was just 1.54 seconds shy of tying the school record, which she owns in the event.
 
Also earning top 10 finishes on the day for the women's team was Katelin Huckabee (4:47.94) in the 1500m run as well as the women's Mile Relay team of Kara Bickham, LaDaria Nelson, Shelby Greenwalt and Jasmine Owens, who claimed third in a time of 4:00.06.
 
Tarleton's men had two more top-10 finishes, one by the Sprint Relay and the other by the second Mile Relay squad. The sprint relay team of Robert Adkinson, Brendan Williams, Ronald Sanchez and Jordan Jones finished third in 42.10 while the Mile Relay team of Marquis Thompson, Aaron Donohue, Rathke and Cameron Gomez finished seventh in 3:21.59.
   
In the sprints and hurdles events, Tarleton earned 17 total top-10 finishes including top-5 performances from Randall Kadlacek, Kyle Johnson, Thompson, Owens and Nelson.
 
Tarleton best finishes came in the men's hurdle events with Kadlacek earning a second-place finish in the 110m Hurdles in 14.81 while Kyle Johnson finished fourth in 15.12. The Tarleton tandem finished 4-5 later in the 400m hurdles with time of 56.98 and 57.17 while Steven Foster added a seventh place finish in 1:00.60.
 
The other three top-5 finishes for Tarleton came in the 400m dash with Thompson taking third in the men's race with a time of 50.31 while Owens (58.89) and Nelson (59.97) finished fourth and fifth in the women's 400m run.
 
Tarleton had eight others finish in the top 10 in their respective sprints and hurdles events with Cameron Gomez (51.61) and Kara Bickham (1:00.59) each finishing seventh in the 400m run; Deylinn Garrett finishing the 200m run in sixth with a time of 26.28 and the 100m Hurdles in 15:74; Robert Adkinson (10.95) and Brendan Williams (11:10 ) in seventh and ninth in the 100m; Williams (22.18) and Sanchez (22.69) in the 200m; and Stephanie Kornegay in ninth in the 400m Hurdles in 1:09.75.
   
The Tarleton men's team dominated the meet from the beginning by having every Texan field competitor finish in the top 15 of their event, 10 of them in the top five and a win by Kenny Odunaiya in the shot put while the women earned three top-10 finishes.
 
Odunaiya highlighted the meet with a win in the shot put with a throw of 15.60m (51-2.25) while Marissa Westbrook highlighted the women's shot put with a career-best second place finish with a throw of 12.44m (40-9.75).
 
For the men, Nic Perez (14.20m; 46-7.25), Ramon Lee (13.80m; 45-3.5) and Zach Pratt (13.36m; 43-10) finished staggered throughout the results in third, fifth and seventh, respectively, while LeAnne Flores capped off the Tarleton top-10 shot putters with a throw of 10.92m (35-10) for a 10^th place finish on the women's side.
 
Tarleton added three more second place finishes in the field events, including William Webb (4.44m; 14-6.75) in the pole vault, Nic Perez (45.84m; 150-5) in the discus and Odunaiya (41.03m; 134-7) in the hammer.
 
In the discus behind Perez's second-place finish was Lee at 44.93m (147-5) in fourth place, Odunaiya 41.03m (134-7) in seventh place while Peyton Best, a heptathlete, earned a 15^th place finish with a throw of 33.72 (110-7).
 
Rounding out the throws were Best in the Javelin with a sixth place finish on a throw of 48.44m (158-11), Pratt in the hammer with a throw of 33.39m (109-6) and, for the women, Brianna Johnson in the hammer with an eighth place finish off a 39.84m (130-8) throw.
 
In the jumping events, Travis Allison highlighted the afternoon with a third place finish in the high jump with a leap of 2.03m (6-8) while Patrick McHale earned a pair of fifth place finishes in the high and long jump with leaps of 1.93m (6-4) and 6.61m (21-8.25), respectively.
 
Best and Xavier Adams rounded out the Tarleton field athletes with a ninth and sixth place finish in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, with leaps of 6.26m (20-6.5) and 12.52m (41-1).
 
Tarleton will not compete in an outdoor event until March 20 when they head to San Angelo for the ASU Spring Break Multi, but will send Rathke to Winston-Salem, N.C. where he will compete in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships on March 14-15.