Track and Field to host annual Wes Kittley Invitational

ABILENE – Abilene Christian track and field will host the fourth edition of its Wes Kittley Invitational Friday and Saturday as part of the program's Alumni Weekend. In town to compete against the Wildcats at Elmer Gray Stadium are Texas Tech, Oral Roberts, Angelo State, West Texas A&M, Tarleton State, Wayland Baptist and Western Texas JC. The Texas Tech men currently are ranked 12th nationally in the USTFCCA preseason poll.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under, and can be purchased at the trailer near the track and field clubhouse off Campus Court.
 
The two-day invitational kicks off Friday at 1:30 p.m. with the decathlon 100m dash followed by the heptathlon 100m hurdles and decathlon long jump at 2:10 p.m. Friday's lone field event is the men's and women's discus at 4:30 p.m., while the women's and men's 5Ks will take place after the alumni reunion at 9 p.m. There also will be a combined 10K to conclude Friday's schedule.

Redshirts Alexandria and Michaela Hackett will compete unattached in Friday's 5K in addition to the 800m run Saturday.

Saturday's multis restart 9 a.m., while the javelin will be the first of 16 field events to commence at 11 a.m. Races get going at 12:20 p.m. with the steeplechase and conclude at 3:50 p.m. with the 4x400-meter relay.

The throwing events with the exception of the javelin will be contested across Ambler Avenue at the throwing field.

Despite redshirting much of its women's distance corps and throwing units, the Wildcats recorded 17 top-10 Southland Conference performances last weekend at the TCU Invitational across 14 events. Freshman Ryan Linton clocked times of 10.78 and 21.63 in the sprints, while junior Ryan Clearly currently ranks third in the 800m with his mark of 1:54.30. Both the men's and women's 4x400m relays rank sixth in the league with respective times of 3:24.06 and 3:59.88, and Chartia Hurt produced the conference's No. 7 time in the 200m (25.06).

Four Wildcat pole vaulters landed in the Southland's top-10 as well with Kyle Mann and Jaden Dement reaching heights of 15-9 and 15-3, and Kenzie Walker Mascorro and Mackenzie West topping out at 12-10 and 11-10.

ACU continued to look strong in the throws even through they're without several all-conference scorers this spring. Joshua Hunter cracked the league's top-10 list in the discus (162-2) and shot put (50-0), and Ryan Simmons did so in the hammer (156-11) and discus (162-2). On the women's side, Taylor Posey ranks ninth in the hammer (139-2) and Reagan Mabery is ninth in the javelin (122-2).

Four redshirting throwers (Morgan Knight, Kayla Melgar, Kai Schmidt and Lonnie Smith) will compete unattached this weekend. Knight is entered in the hammer, and alongside Schmidt in the discus and shot put. Smith and Melgar are entered in the discus. 
 

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About Wes Kittley
Currently the Texas Tech Director of Track and Field and Cross Country, Kittley's Wildcats thrived during a 16-year tenure (1983-99) that included a record 29 NCAA Division II national team championships, 10 Olympic qualifiers, three Pan-American Games athletes, five World University Games athletes, 16 world championships qualifiers and three United States national champions.
 
Kittley won his first national championship in 1985 when his women's Wildcat squad won the NCAA D-II outdoor championship, a title he would win again in '86, '87 and '88. When ACU combined their programs in 1993, Kittley was selected to head the men's team and won the D-II indoor title in his first season.
 
Since leaving Abilene for Texas Tech at the start of the 1999-2000 season, Kittley has greatly added to his championship legacy as he has coached 210 First Team All-Americas, 136 Big 12 Champions, 20 NCAA Champions and 10 Olympians (six medalists). His teams have combined to win five conference titles and posted 12 top-10 NCAA finishes.