STEPHENVILLE – The Texans and TexAnns would combine to record 85 top-eight finishes including 12 first place finishes and two NCAA provisional marks and one school record during Friday's Tarleton State Invitational.
 
"It was a good meet with beautiful weather and awesome crowd support," said Tarleton head coach Pat Ponder. "I'm really proud of the way both teams competed today. Hopefully it's a stepping-stone for these kids to be able to come out and compete whenever they have that Tarleton uniform on regardless of who their competition is."
 
DISTANCE AND RELAYS
 
Starting the outdoor season off were the men and women's 4x100m relay squads.  Up first were the TexAnn "A" (Ariel Ballard, Hollie Boyd, DeAijha Hicks-Boyce, Robbie Clarke)" 1st 49.57 and "B" teams (Beverly Coleman, Alexondria Brooks, Mia Henry, Brianna Aguirre). Tarleton "A" took first in 49.57 closely followed by Tarleton "B" finishing third in 49.90.
 
The Texan sprint-relay composed of Cornelius Blair, Phillip Hayes, Conner Wilkes and Jordan Jones raced to a first-place carrying the baton a full lap in 42.17.
 
In the 800m Haley Dennard and Chase Rathke brought home top-eight finishes. Dennard would finish in sixth clocking 2:33.19 while Rathke would post a provisional mark of 1:51.30 – currently ranked No. 2 in the nation – to literally run away with the 800m, winning by over six seconds.
 
The 1500m would see six Tarleton athletes post top-eight finishes.  Tylo Farrar finished fifth in 4:52.99 while Brandon Lacy (4:07.23), Thorne Pettigrew (4:07.47), Luke Scribner (4:08.30), Peyton Heinig (4:10.28) and Robert Pereria (4:10.53) would claim five of the top eight spots in the men's 1500m finishing third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
 
Scribner and Heinig were on the track again, this time in the men's 5000m. Scribner (15:42.94) finished sixth while Heinig (15:46.03) finished eighth. Miles Joslin highlighted the event with a third-place finish clocking 15:13.49.
 
The last event of the day saw the men's "A" 4x400m relay almost post an NCAA provisional mark coming just .72 seconds short behind the effort of Cameron Krc, Terrance Gross, Marquis Thompson and Gilson Umunnakwe, finishing first in 3:14.79. The Tarleton "B" relay of Ryan Huntly, Phillip Hayes, Blake Eschbach and Clarencio Guerrero would finish fourth in 3:19.89.
 
The TexAnn 4x400m Relay LaDaria Nelson, Shelby Greenwalt, Jasmine Owens and Leslie Zupanic would finish second in 3:57.62, behind Texas A&M-Commerce who would finish first in 3:56.99. The Tarleton "B" relay of DeAijha Hicks-Boyce, Jasmine Lewis, Ariel Ballard and Marisha Carrie finished sixth in 4:24.83.
 
SPRINTS AND HURDLES
 
The 100m, 200m, and 400m events were dominated by Tarleton athletes who combined for 25 of the 85 top-eight finishes in the meet. 
 
In the women's 100m it was DeAijha Hicks-Boyce 1st (12.27), Hollie Boyd 2nd (12.32), Ariel Ballard 3rd (12.53), Robbie Clarke 4th (12.59), Alexondria Brooks 6th (12.81), Beverly Coleman 7th (12.81), Mia Henry 8th (12.92), finishing first, second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
 
For the men, it was Cornelius Blair earning his first college victory clocking 10.90 to win the event by .01. Conner Wilkes finished third in the event posting a time of 10.97.
 
(Hollie) Boyd would return to the track again, this time in the 200m. Boyd would finish seventh (26.63) while teammates Deylinn Garrett (25.81), Jasmine Owens (26.13), Leslie Zupanic (26.31) and Sara Brown (26.67) would finish third, fourth, fifth and eighth, respectively.
 
Phillip Hayes (21.90) was the top finisher for the Texans in the 200m winning his heat and finishing second overall. Rounding out the field in the 200m were Gilson Umunnakwe in fifth (22.31), Cade Hitzfeld in sixth (22.32) and Cornelius Blair in seventh (22.38).
 
The 400m saw six athletes turn in top-eight finishes including Shelby Greenwalt in third (58.62), Leslie Zupanic in fourth (58.73) and Jasmine Owens in fifth (59.27).
 
Freshman Terrance Gross (48.37) was the top finisher for the men posting a personal best in route to a second-place finish. Following Gross were Cameron Krc in sixth (49.17), Gilson Umunnakwe in seventh (49.21) and Marquis Thompson in eighth stopping the clock in 49.64 seconds.
 
 
Deylinn Garrett cruised to a second-place finish in the women's 100-meter hurdles running 15.11, while teammate Jalisa Green clocked 17.47 on her way to a sixth-place finish.
 
Randall Kadlacek would lead the way to the Texan hurdlers finishing second in 14.86 in the men's 110-meter hurdles. Rounding out the field in the 110 hurdles for the Texans were Cade Hitzfeld in third (15.20), Dalton Stidham in fifth (15.44) and De'Vodney Thomas in eighth at 16.41.
 
The 400-meter hurdles would see the debut of senior transfer Marisha Carrie who claimed sixth-place (1:20.39), while Kadlacek (55.52) Blake Eschbach (57.64) and Dalton Stidham (57.86) would claim second, third and fourth-place finishes in the men's 400-meter hurdles, respectively.
 
JUMPS AND THROWS
 
Roxanna Hernandez in second (5' 5"), Morgan McKee in third (5' 5") and Mikala Booher in seventh (5' 1"), got things going early in the women's high jump.
 
Sarah Vann, the indoor school record holder in the pole vault, has now equaled the feat in outdoor track and field by erasing Laura Woods 11'-6.25" record and replaced it with her mark of 11'-11.75" - currently ranked No. 1 in the nation - during a first-place finish Friday. The old record set by Laura Woods was 14-years-old, set in 2001. Alexandra Fuselier finished fourth in the women's pole vault clearing 10'-6" while teammate Averii Dyer placed fifth clearing 10'-0".
 
For the Texans, William Carlton captured the gold clearing 14'-5.25".
 
In the horizontal jumps Andrea Ibe (17'-4.75") and Sarah Brown 16'-3.75" finished first and third in the long jump while Xavier Adams (21'-8.75"), Peyton Best (20'-3.5") and Denzel Brown (19'-11.75") finished third, sixth and eighth to round out the men's long jump.
 
Ibe would return in the women's triple jump recording a best jump of 34'-6.75" to finish fourth.
 
Brown would finish the day as the second-best triple jumper at the meet with a best jump of 43'-3.75" while Xavier Adams finished third at 41'-4.5".
 
The school record holder for indoor and outdoor shot put Danyelle Dillard turned in a meet best 42' 3½" finishing first in the women's shot put followed by Marissa Westbrook in third at 40' 2".
 
Kenny Odunaiya would also record a first-place finish with a toss of 50' 6" in the men's shot put. Zach Pratt would finish second at 48' 2½" while Nic Perez claimed fourth with a best toss of 47' 3½".
 
In the discus Dillard once again recorded a top-eight performance, finishing seventh with a best throw of 116' 6" while Brittany Arce claimed eighth at 115' 2".
 
For the men Nic Perez in first (152' 10"), Ramon Lee in second (150' 0") and Kenny Odunaiya in fourth (145' 7") rounded out the discus for Tarleton.
 
Brianna Johnson picked up right where she left off last season recording a third-place finish in the hammer throw (131' 9") followed by Westbrook in fourth at 126' 1", a new personal best. Zach Pratt claimed seventh with a best throw of 134' 9".
 
Decathlete Peyton Best took third in the javelin with a best of 156' 2", while Amanda Smith in sixth (84' 8") and Leanne Flores in eighth (81' 9") rounded out the TexAnn competitors in the event.
 
"We have to continue to stay in shape over spring break," said Ponder.  "Once we get back from break we go to (Texas) A&M-Commerce and I know they are going to want to have a good meet in front of their home crowd."
 
Tarleton will travel to San Angelo over spring break for a decathlon/heptathlete multi meet on the campus of Angelo State March 18-19.