Final Tune-Up before SLC Championships on Tap for Jacks in College Station

Friday, May 1

College Station, TX

4:00 PM

Stephen F. Austin

Alumni Muster Invitational

Mya Sanders at J. Fred Duckett Invitational (2026)

Photo by: Elisabeth Thornquist

Final Tune-Up before SLC Championships on Tap for Jacks in College Station

4/30/2026 3:10:00 PM | Track & Field

Alumni Muster Invite Stanford 10K (Jemutai & Kiprotich)

SFA to send Jemutai, Kiprotich to Stanford for pivotal 10K competition

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Southland Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships are looming and for Stephen F. Austin one final tune-up awaits the Jacks this weekend in College Station. SFA preps for the Texas A&M Alumni Muster on Friday and Saturday. Additionally, a highly competitive 10K awaits two of the program's top 10K runners in Valentine Jemutai and Paul Kiprotich as the pair heads out west to Stanford for the Payton Jordan Invitational on Friday night.

In C-Stat, the Jacks will compete against a quality mix of regional competition. Baylor, Blinn, Houston Christian, Iowa State, Lamar, Louisiana, McNeese State, Northwestern State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Rice, Sam Houston, Texas A&M – Corpus Christi, Texas Southern, Tulane, UL-Monroe, UT-Tyler and UTSA make up the weekend field.

Friday's action, pending weather, begins at 4 p.m. with the discus and concludes with the running of the 5000m which fires at 8 p.m. Field events start at 10 a.m. on Saturday with the hammer up first, while the 4x100 relay at 2:15 p.m. begins a full afternoon of running that wraps up just after 7 p.m.

For Jemutai and Kiprotich, they'll enjoy a late Friday night along the west coast as the women's 10,000m begins at 11:59 p.m. CT, with the men's event slated for a start of 12:39 a.m. CT. Both runners hold top 100 10K times among all Division I runners and both were earned at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azuza, California. Jemutai's program record time of 33:58.33 leads an event squad that ranks 18^th in the country, while Kiprotich's second-fastest 10K effort in program history leads a squad that ranks 18^th nationally.

The SFA Men enter the weekend ranked No. 7 in the South Central, while the SFA women hold the No. 15 ranking. Both are among the top 175 teams in the country with the men at No. 124 and the women at No. 171.

The Lumberjack men added .59 points to its national total last weekend. Samuel Pavan's decathlon total of 7445 is inside the top 25 nationally, while Hunter Murphy (HJ – 2.15m; 27^th), Bryson Williams (TJ – 15.65m; #37) and Jarvis Anderson (400mH – 51.08; 50^th) all rank inside the DI top 50. The SFA men hold four top 50 event squad rankings paced by the 10000m group (16th nationally) and followed by high jump (25th), shot put (30th) and pole vault (38th).

Kason Reed currently holds the longest shot put in the SLC at 17.79m. Kiprotich also leads in the 5000m at 14:00.30 just outside of becoming only the third runner in program history to dip under 14:00 in the event. Last weekend at Rice, Riley Elliott took over the SLC-lead in the 1500m with a time of 3:43.24; second-fastest in program history. Keyshawn Garcia posted the second-fastest 800m time at 1:48.71 in the SLC this season at Rice.

On the women's side, SFA has a dozen top three performances in the Southland led by Valentine Jemutai's first-place efforts in the 5000m (16:27.90) and 10000m (33:58.33) events.

Basia Mitchell's 5296 points in the heptathlon is currently the second-best result among SLC multis this spring. The result is currently the lone event registering on the national rankings giving the Jacks .05 points as Mitchell's heptathlon result is currently inside the nation's top 50. She also owns the third-longest long jump performance (5.98m) in the SLC.

Timiejha Furlow's time of 11.58 in the 100m at the 44 Farms Invite is the third fastest in the event among SLC sprinters. Garance Dubray's 3000m steeple effort at Bryan Clay rates as the third-fastest time in the event heading into the weekend.

Jemutai's top SLC marks are also new program standards, while first-year Jack Evaline Chepkoech has also rewritten the record book with the fastest times ever by an SFA female in the 800m (2:04.67) and 1500m (4:21.73). Chepkoech's times are both the third-fastest results in the Southland this spring. Mercy Kipchumba rates inside the top three in the SLC in both the 5000m and 10000m runs.

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