Stephen F. Austin
UTSA Invitational
Men Take First, Women Second at UTSA Invitational
3/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Stephen F. Austin at UTSA Invitational
Park West Athletics Complex • San Antonio, Texas
Team Standings: Men – 1st (174 pts), Women – 2nd (125 pts)
Final Results 
Event-By-Event Results
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin track and field teams got the 2016 outdoor season started off on the right foot this weekend at the UTSA Invitational at the Park West Athletics Complex in San Antonio. The Lumberjacks blew away the seven-team field with 174 points while the Ladyjacks took second with 125 points, finishing just shy of Wichita State.
The men saw seven individual event champions crowned between the two-day meet, including My’Lik Kerley (800m), Cameron Meyer (pole vault), Isiah Pittman (long jump/triple jump), Cody Brown (3,000m steeplechase), Will Gibson (400m) and the 4x400m relay team of Johnathan Joe, D’Lance Sharp, Tedrick Hawkins and Isiah Pittman.
In her first meet of the year in SFA purple and white, Demi Payne led the Ladyjacks with a first place effort in the women’s pole vault. She cleared 14-7.25 (4.45m) to win by over one foot and collect 10 points for her team.
Meyer jumped 17-4.50 (5.30m) on the men’s side to complete the pole vault sweep for SFA. Daven Murphree and Noah Gilfillan finished right behind Meyer in second and fourth, respectfully, with leaps of 16-4.75 (5.00m).
Kerley cruised to first place in 1:52.88 in his first collegiate 800-meter race on Saturday. He won by more than a second over the 16-man field and moved into second position in the Southland Conference standings for the season.
Gibson also posted the second fastest time in the league this season in his 400m final. The junior posted a mark of 48.13 to win by 31 hundredths of a second over UTSA’s Kaylan Harris.
Pittman and teammate Trey Darty went 1-2 in both the long jump and triple jump for the ‘Jacks. Pittman soared 24-4.50 (7.43m) and Darty landed in 23-11 (7.29m) in the long jump – the third and fourth best jumps in the SLC this season. The freshman Pittman then bounded 46-0 feet (14.02m) to win the triple.
SFA claimed a plethora of points in the 3,000m steeplechase, placing five men in the top six. Led by Brown (9:36.83) the ‘Jacks also went 3rd-6th with Josh Torres (9:46.46), Kaleb Vasquez (9:52.30), Larry Deramus (9:53.00) and Brandt Preston (9:56.20). On the women’s side, Bridgette Kozar crossed second in 11:47.72.
Both 4x400m relays opened the outdoor season on top of the conference. Joe, Sharp, Hawkins and Pittman posted the league’s top time with a mark of 3:12.93, beating Houston by .07 seconds on Saturday. Tiffany Williams, Aliyah Davis, Dominique Jackson and Dawnshae Evans placed third in San Antonio but also captured the top time in the SLC at 3:47.63.
The 4x100m squads also ran well on both sides. Aaron Piper, Jared Love, Sharp and Trevon Caudle went in on a 41.04-second quarter mile – good for second place. Jackson, Chasity Clark, Evans and Davis got third with a time of 46.30.
Other top finishes for the men on the track included Kerry Gleason and Jordan Washington going 3-4 in the 110m hurdles with marks of 14.33 and 14.53. The duo ranks in the top three in the SLC this season. Gleason (52.60) and Garrett Moore (52.82) also came in neck-and-neck with third and fourth place efforts in the 400m hurdles. Devin Wallace captured second in the 200m with a time of 21.32 seconds, coming just 0.13 seconds away from gold.
Fresh of her 200m win at the 2016 SLC Indoor Championships, Davis used a PR of 23.89 seconds in the event on Saturday to take second out of 26 competitors and vault to No. 1 in the SLC for the outdoor season.
Other top running events for the Ladyjacks included Evans’ runner-up performance at 400 meters with a time of 55.75 seconds. Tasia Williams and Jackson took second and third in the hurdles at the same distance, crossing in 1:01.39 and 1:02.66. Clark (11.94) and Chelsi Gill (12.01) went 5-6 in the 100-meter dash, while Rana Ryan (2:17.90) and Allison Compass (2:18.87) had the same placement in the 800-meter run. Bria McIver used a split of 14.44 seconds to take fifth in the 100m hurdles.
Senior Jessica Spelling had a busy but successful weekend in the throwing events. She earned three top five finishes, going third in the discus (142-10), fourth in the shot put (45-3.75) and fifth in the hammer (166-11). She now ranks in the top six in all three events at the conference level.
SFA will next be in action this Friday and Saturday at the Victor Lopez Classic hosted by Rice in Houston. More information about the meet will be provided later in the week.
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