ABILENE - Abilene Christian's men's and women's track and field teams begin their 2014 outdoor seasons this weekend with a trip across town to McMurry University for its annual War Hawk Classic.
Events at Wilford Moore Stadium begin Friday at noon with the men's pole vault and conclude late Saturday afternoon with the 4x400-meter relay. The meet will be scored.
The Wildcats have not competed in close to a month after making their debut at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships. The men's team placed sixth at the Birmingham (Ala.) CrossPlex with 46 points and will return several indoor all-conference honorees from that meet, including Osei Allyene-Forte (4x400m), Daniel Block (800m, 4x400m), Devan Brown (4x400m) Johnathan Farquharson (60m, 4x400m) and Luke Woods (heptathlon).
The women's team placed ninth out of 14 teams with 25 points but enter this outdoor campaign without the services of two-time conference champion Reyare Thomas, who has exhausted her eligibility. In her place, the Wildcats must lean heavily on their small army of 17 freshmen in addition to veterans Lauren Hartwick, Emily Hill, Shalania Lakey, Ameilia Mitchell and Lexus Williams.
Hartwick, Lakey and Mitchell all have been outstanding throwers the last several years, while Williams has paced the Wildcats in the hurdles and Hill in the middle-distance events.
Mitchell recorded the best outdoor season of her career in 2013, which was capped by a fifth-place all-America throw of 152 feet-4 inches (46.44m) at the D-II National Championships in Pueblo, Colo. She also earned runner-up honors at the Lone Star Conference Championship with a top throw of 143-6 (43.74m).
Lakey and Hartwick, meanwhile, finished first and second in the LSC hammer throw with top distances of 175-09 (53.58m) and 170-04 (51.91m), respectively. This indoor season, Lakey came in seventh place in Southland Conference indoor weight throw with an effort of 55-08.25 (16.97m).
A redshirt junior, Williams' resume includes four Lone Star Conference titles, including the 2012 and 2013 100 hurdles. She's also won with the Wildcats' 4x400-meter relay and again on her own in the indoor 55 hurdles. Williams enters the second half of this season as the school's record holder in the indoor 60 hurdles (8.71) and No. 6 on its list of all-time performers in the outdoor 100 hurdles (13.74).
A member of the Lone Star Conference's 2013 all-academic team, Hill has finished as high as fourth in the LSC outdoor 800m run with a time of 2:17.29. And last winter she and her teammates on the distance medley relay came in fourth at the LSC Indoor Championships in 12:41.51.
The men's team for this outdoor season is a little more age-diverse with four seniors, two juniors, a dozen sophomores and seven freshmen comprising the roster. On the track, ACU can count on Farquharson to score consistently in the sprints and relays, while in the field events, the Wildcats will receive a huge boost from senior Baptiste Kerjean in the hammer throw and Aaron Bynum in the javelin.
Bynum had his best postseason showing last spring in finishing third in the javelin with a toss of 194-03 (59.21m), while Kerjean won his second straight conference hammer throw title with ease in recording a distance of 209-10. Kerjean went on to finish as the national runner-up in Pueblo, establishing a new varsity record of 218-00.
The Wildcats also possesses significant depth in the horizontal jumps led by Darian Hogg along with Farquharson and sophomore Malcolm Barnes, while Woods - the runner-up in the Southland heptathlon - can provide strong marks in the high jump, pole vault and hurdles. Sophomore Jeremy Tatham is another talented multi-eventer for the Wildcats' whose strengths rest in the 110- and 400-meter hurdles. Tatham was last spring's third-place finisher in the sprint hurdles with a wind-aided time of 14.80 seconds.
In the middle-distance events Block will be an upgrade for the Wildcats in the 800-meter run as evidenced by his second-place finish indoors at the Southland Conference Championships (1:51.34), while Allyene-Forte - a junior - has scored in eight separate conference events, including relays. In 2012 he was a D-II all-America with the Wildcats' 4x100-relay (40.31).
Farquharson this winter was the Southland Conference's sixth-place runner in the 200m and third-place individual in the 60m with times of 21.87 and 6.83. He also guided ACU's 4x400m-relay to a surprising third-place time of 3:15.81.
During his most recent outdoor season, Farquharson went to NCAAs in the 100-meter dash but placed 15th with a time of 10.42. And at the LSC meet in Canyon, Texas, he scored in four events, ranging from the 100 to long jump.
