JACKSON, Miss. – McMurry University added two individual champions and retained both of its leads in the American Southwest Conference Track & Field Championship standings on Friday in Jackson, Mississippi.
The women's track and field team had individual victories from Kelby Tidwell and Margo Mendoza in field events. Tidwell added pole vaulting to her deep arsenal of events and won the event with a clearance of 3.24 meters. Mendoza won the women's discus with a mark of 38.35m to defend her championship from 2019.
The McMurry women have 123 points to lead through eight events. They are followed by Hardin-Simmons (62), East Texas Baptist (37), LeTourneau (36), Concordia Texas (27), UT Dallas (6) and site-host Belhaven (5).
The McMurry men remain in the lead with 77 points through seven events. The War Hawks are followed by HSU (59), Concordia Texas (39), LeTourneau (32), Belhaven (28), UT Dallas (17), ETBU (16) and Ozarks (2).
McMurry has the top three overall scorers in the meet so far. Sophomore Ellie Ryan remains the top overall scorer with 22 points, adding a second place finish in the discus throw today for eight points. Tidwell is the second-highest scorer with 19 points, adding a second place finish in today's long jump.
The top overall men's scorer so far is senior Ethan Blocker with 14 points from the javelin and hammer events.
The women's discus perhaps brought the most success for McMurry, led by Mendoza and Ryan finishing gold and silver. Freshmen Glenda Parra (34.36m) and Elizabeth Jordan (33.91m) placed fourth and fifth, respectively, while Carly Kantrowitz placed seventh at 31.62m. McMurry collected 29 of a possible 39 points.
In the women's long jump, Tidwell led a group of three War Hawks to a 2-3-4 finish for 19 points combined. Tidwell placed second at 5.16m, Jada Morris placed third at 5.04m and Nandhi Brown was fourth at 5.02m.
Jessy Villagomez, Vern Angton III and Sutton Welch all scored in the men's shotput, with Villagomez placing second at 14.61m – 0.16m off the top mark. Angton finished fifth at 12.95m and Welch scored in eighth at 12.46m. Welch is the third highest scoring male overall with 11 points, 10 from yesterday's hammer championship.
Sophomore Jermond Lovely placed second in the men's long jump for eight points with a mark of 6.64m.
The men's decathlon and women's heptathlon also concluded today. Sophomore Corbin Stulir scored one point with an eighth place finish, collecting 2920 points. Stulir won the javelin and finished second in the shot put.
The men took two of the three podium spots in the decathlon, as freshman Rylan Rogers finished second with 5,224 points and sophomore Justin DeLeon finished third with 5,027 points. DeLeon won the long jump and high jump, while Rogers won the pole vault and shot put events. The duo combined for 14 podium finishes and had at least one podium finish between them in every event.
The final two events of the day were the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase, as freshman Caitlin Crow contributed six points in a third place finish with a time of 13:24.36. Sophomore Justin Bozell also finished third on the men's side with a time of 10:25.98.
With select field events, long distance running events, the decathlon and heptathlon out of the way, tomorrow's championship will conclude with multiple running events and seven field events.
Below is a list of War Hawks who qualified during today's preliminary races, listed in order of completion:
The final day begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow with the women's 5K, followed by the women's high jump at 9:30 a.m. The championship comes to a fever pitch at 5:20 p.m. with the women's and men's 4x400 meter relay.
For more championship information, click here.
