South Plains track and field makes strong showing in final meet before Indoor Nationals

HOBBS—Following a dominating day one performance which saw the South Plains track and field teams continue to make their case as the top program in the country, the Texans and Lady Texans were just as impressive on Saturday at the Ross Black Field of Champions in their final meet before the NJCAA Indoor National Championships.

"I think we've done a great job and have used this meet to sharpen up," South Plains head coach Erik Vance said. "We had a couple of kids we need to get qualified, and they did the job and did what they needed to do. We've looked good and I'm happy with what we've done today."

Safia Bright kicked off the afternoon with a second place finish in the women's 60 meter dash after posting a final time of 7.51. Taylor Hill placed fourth with a 7.60 and Joi Gill took sixth with a 7.70. Bright then went on take second overall in the 200 meter dash with a final mark of 24.08, while Omotayo Abolaji and Hill finished fifth and sixth with times of 24.51 and 24.87, respectively.

Mauricia Prieto earned fourth place honors after running a 55.72 in the women's 400 meter dash, while Shirley Vunatup wasn't far behind with her time of 58.05. Agnes Abrocquah took first for the Lady Texans in the women's 600 meter run with a time of 1:34.38, with Latriceia Smith placing second with a 1:34.53. Hellen Maasotuo took second in the women's 800 meter run with a time of 2:16.80, while Poro Gahekave placed second in the 1000 meter run with her time of 3:03.66.

In the women's mile run, Leslie Romero earned second place honors with a time of 5:22.53, while Seselia Dala took the top spot in the women's 3000 meter run with a final time of 10:42.81. In the women's high jump competition, Bosiboro Mosongo placed third with a final mark of 5' 3.25", while Naomi Kerrari placed fourth with her jump of 5' 1.25". Jannis Price took third in the women's shot put with a final throw of 35' 4.25".

Derrick Monroe got things started for the Texans in the 60 meter dash, posting a final time of 7.14 and placing fifth overall. Jordan Atkinson smoked the competition in the 400 meter dash with his time of 48.40, while Cordell Richardson placed fourth with a 51.65. Montel Hood went on to place third in the 600 meter run with a time of 1:19.82, while Rayan Holmes placed fifth with a 1:21.83.

The Texans earned a two-three-four finish in the 800 meter run as Felix Kosgei, Omero Rodriguez and Dekaryea Freeman finished with their final times of 1:58.70, 1:59.20 and 1:59.25, respectively. Nicholas Rotich took second for South Plains in the 1000 meter run with a time of 2:34.29 while Kosgei earned the top honors in the mile run with a mark of 4:25.52.

Deric Martinez took first overall in the men's 5000 meter run with a time of 16:00.46, while Jose Silva placed second with a 16:01.07. The Texans swept the top three positions in the men's 60 meter hurdles as William Watson, Mason Weh and Roje Jackson-Chin went one-two-three with their times of 8.07, 8.13 and 8.25.

Laquan Nairn leaped 6' 8.75" to take first overall in the men's high jump, while Jonathan Witt cleared 12' 9.5" in the pole vault, good enough for second place overall.

In the men's Heptathlon, Zach Hancock took first in the high jump with a final mark of '5 11.5", while Patrick Johnson took second after clearing 5' 8". Jonathan Witt took first overall in the pole vault Heptathlon with a mark of 12' 0", while Hancock took second with his mark of 10' 8.25".

Johnson went on to take first overall in the men's Heptathlon with a final score of 4360, while Witt placed second with a 4355 and Hancock took third with his score of 4318. With four meets in the books and two programs ranked inside the top five nationally, Vance likes where his teams sit and knows his athletes have the poise and moxie to bring home the ultimate prize.

"I really like where we're at," Vance said. "It's not a long time between now and then(nationals), but we've got our kids where they need to be. Now what they have to do is have two good weeks of practice and we'll see how it shakes out. I like the teams we have on both sides and I think we can make some noise when we get up there."

Final Results: http://spctexans.prestosports.com/sports/mtrack/2016-17/files/nmjc_indoor_invitational_2017_results_3.pdf