The men's and women's team traveled up the road to Austin, TX to compete in the UT Invite against some of the best competition the state can offer. Among the teams in attendance were UT, A&M, Corpus A&M, Sam Houston, Univ. of Houston, Angelo State, Lamar. It was a good test for us as we continue to look forward to the peaking season come April, early May.
Here are some of the highlights of the meet for both teams:
Jay Wilson, sophomore from Churchill HS in San Antonio continued his steady improvement by winning his heat of the 1500m in 4:01.87, good for a new school record. His time was good enough for 7th overall out of 28 athletes. If he would have been in the first heat he may have run even better. He controlled his heat for much of the race.
Yvonne Rodriguez, junior from Tuluso-Midway established another school record in the 1500m in her quest to break every female distance record we have. Yvonne's time of 4:45.48 was good for 6th place in a stacked field. She was right in the thick of things until the very end, holding 2nd place as late as until the final 200 meters. Her time leaves her 3 seconds away from the D-II outdoor provisional qualifying standard.
Jay came back a little over an hour later and again won his heat, this time in the 800m. He finished with a time of 1:57.56 to finish 11th out of 36. Once again, his heat provided little competition for him. This was his first 800m in over a year.
Yvonne, like Jay, came back on little rest and established another school record. This time, she broke the record she set at TX State two weeks ago. Yvonne finished the 3000m in 10:20.20 to miss the qualifying standard by 5 seconds! As her times continue to drop we hope that she is a few weeks away from securing herself a solid provisional mark for the championships in California.
Adrian Carrillo finished the distance party by setting a new record in the men's steeple. Adrian was running his first-ever 3000m steeple race. We have not been on top of his steeple preparation like we should have, spending a mere two weeks jumping hurdles. Nonetheless, Adrian went out in an aggressive manner and stayed with much of the pack during the race. With Shayn Weidner's help, he broke Shayn's record from last year. As Shayn continues to get healthy, this gives our distance program optimism to have 2 sub-10 minute steeplers next year.
The men's 4 x 400m finished out our day on a strong note with a new school mark of 3:20.48. Judson HS Freshman Christian Alicea started us off with a 49.10 split. He handed off to Warren HS Freshman Taylor Echevarria, who ran a split of 50.05. Taylor handed off to Christian's freshman brother George Alicea, who toured the track in 49.50. George handed off to seasoned anchor Chacho Madera, who ran a 51.56 split. Chacho was not feeling well after running the open 400 earlier in the afternoon. He is normally good for a low 49 split, bringing our time to a high 3:18, low 3:19. That is the kind of time we are looking for at this point in the season as we peak.
We have had trouble putting everything on the 4 x 400m together at this point. The two consistants all season have been George and Christian. They are pulling double duty on the 4 x 100m and have been good for a consistant 49 split. Taylor is still learning to run on the 4 x 400m and Chacho is working his way back from the flu and a hamstring injury that kept him out for 3 weeks early this semester. Once these guys get going coupled with alternate freshman John Zavala (Auscion, Paraguay South America) we will be closer to our goal of making the national championships in May.
Other noteables:
Rose Caldwell (Sophomore from Warren HS, SA, TX) showed improvement in the 3000m with a PR of 10:53. She continues to scratch the surface of her ability, which we hope will lead to a 10:35 by the end of the season.
Hayley Watts (Sophomore from Boerne HS, Boerne, TX) showed improvement in the open 400 by running 60 flat as she was completing the long jump.
We take it easy this week as we prepare for some more stiff competition at the Victor Lopez Invite on the Rice University campus Friday and Saturday.
For all UT results go to: http://cache.texassports.com/doc_lib/000_stats/tk/tk_032208_results.htm
