ABILENE – Abilene Christian track and field student-athletes can be spotted at two road meets this weekend. Parker Petty, Matthew Stark and Cassie Brooks will represent ACU at the Air Force Combined Events in Colorado Springs, while the remaining Wildcats will be dispatched to Albuquerque for the New Mexico Invitational.
ACU's men's team enters the week with a No. 17 ranking from the USTFCCA. The women's team dropped two spots to No. 26 after beginning the year ranked 24th.
The combined events schedule begins Thursday at 3:30 p.m. (MT)/4:30 p.m. (CT) with the men's heptathlon 60-meter dash and will conclude midday Friday with the men's 1000-meter run. Petty and Stark have to score 4600 points or above in the heptathlon for NCAA consideration and 5153 points to clinch a spot at the national championship.
By comparison, Brooks has to score 3300 or more points in the pentathlon for consideration and 3813 to join teammates
Nick Jones (shot put) and Amanda Ouedraogo (triple jump) at indoor nationals. Brooks is currently a provisional qualifier as part of the 4x400m relay that produced an altitude-adjusted time of 3:54.61 at last weekend's Texas Tech Open.
Brooks' 2012 season bests in the multis include a mark of 9.03 in the 60m hurdles, leaps of 17 feet-00.50 inches and 5-3 in the long and high jumps, and a toss of 39-7 in the shot put.
Petty registered heights of 6-2.25 and 14-7.25 in the high jump and pole vault, and beat Stark in the 55-meter hurdles 8.57 to 8.98.
In addition to Brooks, nine other Wildcats added their names to the NCAA's top performers list while competing in Lubbock. Jordan Geary posted the nation's 10th fastest time in the 400-meter dash at 49.00 seconds, Dennis Bain slipped into the top 20 for the 60m hurdles with his mark of 8.18, while Lexus Williams did the same with her time of 8.78.
The ACU men's 4x400m relay of senior Paris Robertson, Osei Allyene-Forte, Banjo Jayesimi and Geary recorded the seventh fastest NCAA DII mark at 3:18.38, while Brooks and her team, which was comprised of Shennae Steele, Ayesha Rumble and Karla Hope posted a top-10 mark of 3:54.61.
Steele and Robertson are also provisional qualifiers in the 60m dash with respective top times of 7.72 and 6.91, both of which were recorded at the Air Force Academy in December.
The New Mexico Invitational takes place Friday and Saturday. Starting time on Friday is 4 p.m. with the women's long jump. Saturday's events begin at 9 a.m. with the women's pole vault and conclude at 4:10 p.m. with the women's 4x400m relay.
The University of New Mexico Indoor facility is located in the Albuquerque Convention Center and is a 200
meter, 60 degree banked Mondo track.
