WACO, Texas – Tarleton State Track and Field opened their 2025 outdoor season with three individual event champions on Saturday in the Clyde Hart Classic hosted by Baylor at the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium.
 
Tarleton State had four individuals take win their event in the season-opening outdoor meet. Seven student-athletes posted eight top 10 all-time program performances with all coming in field events.
 
Kaitlyn Gale won the 3000-meter steeplechase in 11:04.30. The freshman made her collegiate debut in the event running against only two other competitors. She came within 17 seconds of the school record set by Morgan Lamberson last season, to hold the third best mark in program history.
 
Mason Hill took home the crown in the shot put in the afternoon. Hill set his personal best on back-to-back tosses culminating at 16.48 meters. The sophomore moves up to fifth in program history. He earned his first event championship of his collegiate career.
 
Jacob Thomas was the third event champion on the day. Thomas was the only vaulter to clear the 5.0-meter mark, resulting in his first collegiate event championship. The junior was just a tenth of a meter shy of the school record. He put the bar to 5.1 meters to set a new lifetime best, but he fell just short in all three tries. Aston Kollatschny also posted a top 10 performance in school history. Kollatschny set a new personal best with the ninth best height in program history, 4.65 meters to finish seventh.
 
Braylon Hoffman notched a victory in his belt, taking home the crown in the 400 hurdles. Hoffman won his heat and ultimately the event crossing in 54.44 seconds. The Texans also record the third and fourth best times with Noah Newman (56.08 seconds) and Jordan Ferguson (56.64 seconds).
 
Tayler Wessely reached the finals of the hammer throw in her Texan outdoor debut. Wessely's best throw came on her final throw of the day, 48.25 meters. It pushed her into the third best in program history less than a meter from Brianna Johnson's school record set in 2015. She posted the eighth-best personal record in the shot put in school history to close out the meet. Wessely's third throw of 12.94 meters set a new personal best and earned her fourth place in the event.
 
Ashonti Idlebird and Kai Nixon set new personal bests and cracked the top 10 performance bests in school history in the triple jump. Idlebird improved her personal best by almost a half meter finishing fourth at 11.96 meters, which now ranks sixth in school history. Nixon cracked the top 10 list for the first time posting a new best of 11.62 meters, the ninth longest in program history.
 
Paige Elliott posted the fourth best height in program history in the pole vault. Elliott's improved her personal best by 0.05 meters. She cleared her first height on the first attempt followed by a first attempt make at 3.55 meters. Sage Barmettler finished ninth in the event with her best height of 3.70 meters, just 0.02 meters shy of her outdoor personal best.
 
Toby Eaton posted a third-place finish in the men's 1500 meters. The freshman led the three-person pack of Texans crossing in 3:57.74 in his Texan outdoor debut.
 
Jayden Busby posted a bronze finish in the men's 800 meters. Busby crossed in 1:57.99 to earn third followed by teammate Omer Ibrahim who placed fourth. Ibrahim clocked in at 1:58.14.
 
Tarleton State will embark on its second of six regular season outdoor meets next weekend at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas. The action will span across three days starting on Thursday and concluding on Saturday.