BIRMINGHAM, AL. - The men's track & field program finished runner-up at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships for a program high to earn its first trophy at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
"Incredible job by the men this weekend," said head coach
Brent Ericksen. "This is the first track & field trophy and highest finish in school history. [Senior]
Trpimir Siroki is a work horse and earned athlete of the year and set a conference record by scoring 38 points."
The men earned their highest point total in program history with 109.5 points to earn the program best second-place finish.
Siroki continued to show what he was made of in the second day of competition. He began the day with a 8.17s time in the men's 60m hurdles in the heptathlon before finishing out the event in third in the 1000m with a time of 3:05.60. Later, he would launch himself up 4.95 meters to win the heptathlon pole vault. After the points were tallied, Siroki came away with a final score of 5,604 to win the men's heptathlon.
Fellow senior
Daniel Armstrong finished sixth in the heptathlon with a total of 4,389 points. Armstrong ran a time of 8.32 in the men's 60m hurdles behind Siroki before beating him in the 1000m run with a time of 3:04.85 to finish second. He cleared 3.15m in the pole vault to finish sixth in the heptathlon group.
Senior
Kiara Pickens placed seventh in the women's triple jump by launching herself 11.73m. Senior
Preston Whaley won the event for the men with a mark of 14.63m
With three athletes advancing to the finals, the Islanders took fifth through seventh place in the men's 60m hurdles.
Ke'Tavion Humber, a senior, led the pack with a time of 8.23s with graduate student
Timor Barrett behind him (8.32s) and Armstrong rounding them out with a 8.43s time.
Sophomore
Capri Wilson went into the 60m dash with the fifth best time in program history, but decided that wasn't enough, deciding to go out and improve the time to 7.63s. The performance was a new personal best and brought her to a fourth-place finish at the meet. She competed in the women's 200m dash and come in fourth once again, clocking in at 24.74s.
In the women's mile, sophomore
Sharon Kiprop and senior
Faith Bett earned fifth and sixth, respectively. Kiprop ran a 5:04.53 time to mover her up to sixth all-time in the program and Bett clocked a 5:05.98 to come in right after.
Freshman
Tranasia Jones showed what she was capable of in the women's 400m dash. She set a new personal best with a 57.17 performance which brings her to fourth all-time for the Islanders. On the men's side of the event, junior
Leonardo Ledgister earned a 47.06s time to tie his prior school record he set earlier this season. Barrett earned seventh place, coming in at 48.44s.
Senior
Erika Snyder bowed out of the women's high jump after earning a 1.74 jump to place her second in the event.
Junior Dennis Kipnego led the Islanders in the men's 3K with a time of 8:18.42 to finish second in the event. Freshman
Kelvin Kimaiyo came in fifth (8:23.95) as graduate student
Tristan Stellmach rounded out the team in sixth (8:26.28). Stellmach's performance brought him into sixth all-time in the event as well for A&M-Corpus Christi.
Rounding out the day was the women's 4x400m who ran a time of 3:50.80 to finish third. The team was made of sophomore
Jadyn Wagner, juniors
Riley Cowan, Jones and sophomore
Yasmine Steele.
Men Team Standings
1. UIW (156)
2.
A&M-Corpus Christi (109.5)
3. McNeese State (104)
4. New Orleans (97)
5. Southeastern (95)
6. Northwestern State (67)
7. HBU (50)
8. Nicholls (5)
Women Team Standings
1. McNeese State (156)
2. UIW (134)
3. Northwestern State (89)
4. HBU (80.5)
5. New Orleans (78)
6. Southeastern (52.5)
7.
A&M-Corpus Christi (47)
8. Nicholls (20)
Stay Social
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@IslandersTFXC), Instagram (
@IslandersTFXC) and like their Facebook page (
Islanders Track & Field/Cross Country).
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